


Coils

by Huggle



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Cas Whump, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, First Time, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, M/M, Protective Winchesters, dcbb2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-06
Updated: 2017-10-06
Packaged: 2019-01-09 23:10:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 37,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12286191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Huggle/pseuds/Huggle
Summary: After the attack by Ramiel, Dean and Sam take Cas home to recover. But a misunderstanding sees Cas driven from the bunker.Dean is determined to fix things with Cas for once and for all; but something ancient and bitter, with an appetite for angels, has awakened.Soon, Cas, with the brothers, and an old friend, find themselves battling one of the greatest threats Heaven has ever known.





	Coils

**Author's Note:**

> So, here's hoping I've done all this right!
> 
> The art is by the amazing Correlia: thank you! It's been such a pleasure to work with you on this. 
> 
> And now, dear Nib! My awesome, patient, long suffering friend Nib bravely agreed to beta this story. I'm sure more than once with a internalised scream of despair though there was also discussion of a T shirt design. Any mistakes in here are mine; but if you enjoy the story, it's all due to Nib.
> 
> More notes: I'm not the most net savvy person so I haven't figured out how to get the fabby art to appear in the story! So here is the link:http://correlia-be.tumblr.com/post/166115480354/for-the-deancas-big-bang-2017-art-master-post-for
> 
> Please check it out!

 

Billy Ray grinned cheekily as he padded across the set, unbothered by the director’s disapproval of his nudity. It was a porn shoot, which seemed an odd place to work if you had a problem with people’s dangly bits being on view. 

Of course, he didn't seem to have any issue when the ladies were undressed which was why, unlike him, they only stripped once they were in front of the cameras and put on robes as soon as the scene was done. 

He grabbed his own robe from the coat stand by the door and slipped into it, watching as Munro reviewed the shot. 

None of the actors had left, and that was because they were used to their esteemed director finding fault with the lighting or cues or the _rhythm_. In other words, any excuse for the female cast to get naked again until he was satisfied.

That tended to take a while, so no one was surprised when he shook his head and ordered another take. Not for Billy Ray, though. He could go. 

There were still a couple of the guys hanging back, so Billy Ray retreated to his room. Not that he thought the women needed protecting. If that dick tried anything he’d be peeing through a tube for the rest of his days once they were through with him. 

All the same, maybe one of these days a lesson would become overdue. 

Shame he wasn't in that business anymore. 

But this was better than nothing and hey, he got laid a lot by some people who were gorgeous in and out so he supposed he shouldn't complain. 

Things could definitely be worse and there were a lot of perks to living the human life, or a version of. 

Hot showers, water pounding into him and easing away sore muscles, and the signs of an energetic shoot, were a definite plus. He could achieve the same effect with a snap of his fingers but it wouldn't be half as satisfying. 

Once he was dressed, he grabbed his hold-all and headed for the exit. 

Director ass was berating one of the guys and Billy Ray could see where things were heading. He’d get hands on. _Honey, maybe if you were lying this way then Steve wouldn't look like he’s thrown his hip._

“Hey,” he said. “They know what they’re doing. You're the one holding shit up.”

It was almost comical the way Munro turned around, mouth like a goldfish, eyes just as wide. 

“I’m sorry,” he said. His tone was full of affected shock. “Were you talking to me?’’

Somebody sniggered. Director douche’s head snapped around to glare at everybody before he looked back at Billy Ray. 

But in that moment Billy Ray had moved in fast and they were nose to nose, which produced a satisfying look of actual shock on the asswipe’s face. 

“You put one hand where it shouldn't be, I’ll rip your balls off and shove ‘em up your ass,” he said. “Try me if you want.”

There was the hint of a smart comeback on his face, so Billy Ray reached down, squeezed and watched the colour drain from his skin like someone had pulled the plug. 

He held on long enough for director dickface to actually start wheezing, before letting go. 

The guy dropped like a sack of rocks and lay there, ashen faced, panting, hands cupping his jewels like that was going to help. Billy Ray wiped his hand down on his jacket, bade the others good night and headed out to his car. 

Yeah, there was always a chance he wouldn't have a job tomorrow but things weren't quite as desperate as they had been at first. And while he seldom blew his own horn…. 

Oh, who was he kidding! The studio couldn't afford to lose him, but morons like almost-dickless were ten a penny. 

He’d be safe enough. 

He was unlocking the car when he felt it more than heard it. Billy Ray dropped his bag and drew his weapon in one smooth movement and stared at the figure that came out from behind a truck.

He had to look twice, peering past the human shell. It’d been a long time since he’d seen one of them and he wasn’t sure at first. Once he realised, his fist closed tightly around his blade.

“Well,” Billy Ray said. “Been a while since any of you have been out and about. What’s the special occasion?”

The stranger gave him a pitying look. “I’m here to break some bad news.”

Billy Ray backed away carefully. The car wasn't an option. By the time he was inside, had the engine started…

It’d take too long. 

He had two choices then. Fight or run. 

Turning tail didn't appeal but then the last time he’d stood and fought hadn't gone so well and it hadn't even been his fight. 

He wasn’t about to do that again.

The stranger didn’t seem too bothered by his obvious attempt at retreat. He advanced slowly as if he had all the time in the world.

“There really isn't any point in running. You had to know this would happen one day.”

Yeah, he had. The others, they’d thought it was a done deal. He hadn’t shared their bizarre mix of stupidity and optimism, but then he’d also known the result they’d got was the best one they were likely to.

A win was a win. 

Until it wasn’t, and there could only be one explanation for them being active again. They couldn’t have picked a worse time.

Billy Ray started backing up again. A little further and he’d be in the centre of the car park, more room to run...Or fight, if it came to that.

He had a feeling it might.

“You know we’ll just do it all over again, right?” He kept his eyes mostly on the one slowly following his retreat, but he scanned the car park every couple of seconds. They never operated alone, and if they’d singled him out….

Which begged the question how they'd found him in the first place.

“I doubt it. We know things aren’t quite as they were. None of you seem as inclined to meddle these days. It’s a refreshing approach.”

He probably wasn’t wrong. 

“Been looking for me in particular?”

The stranger shrugged, as if it wasn’t really of any consequence. “There are so few of you around these days. Alone, anyway. And even less who might not be missed.”

He definitely wasn’t wrong there. For him to be missed, they had to know he was still around and, even with the potential outcome of this encounter, he knew he’d want it kept that way.

He heard the low hiss a moment before he caught the movement just out of the corner of his eye. Something reared up out of the darkness.

Billy Ray lashed out, but it jerked back out of the way. He danced back as it weaved sinuously through the air, looking for another opening.

Another attack was snapped out at him, and he barely dodged it. He tried to watch the position of the other one, but when he saw a pile of clothes where the guy had been standing, he knew he was out of options.

He swung his weapon in a wide arc, driving the first one back, and actually managing to draw blood. 

It gave him an opening. He ran to the side of the nearest car, leapt up onto the roof, and glanced quickly back down.

The second one had almost been upon him. He watched as they split up, one moving to each end of the car.

Billy Ray did a short jump, up, back down, felt the car shake.

The alarm didn’t trip.

Damn it. He did it again, felt the thud as one of them landed on the body of the vehicle.

Please, he thought. Tell me I didn’t pick the one car in the lot whose owner was too cheap to install an alarm.

There was a BMW in the next space. Billy Ray jumped the gap, hit the roof awkwardly and rolled straight down onto the hood.

Not where he wanted to be. Too close to the ground. Too close to the other vehicle….

There was an explosion of sound and light, the alarm squealing like something being tortured, the lights flashing brightly, on, off, on, off.

The horn started to sound as well.

Billy Ray scrambled back up on to the roof. The other two had disappeared from the first car. He kept a keen eye on the perimeter of the one he stood on, but nothing moved.

“What the fuck are you doing?”

He looked over at the studio door. Munro was standing there, car keys in one hand. It looked like everybody was there behind him, cast, crew.

Munro pressed a button, and the car fell silent.

“I asked what the hell you were doing, you piece of shit!”

Billy Ray took a last quick look around, and jumped down. They wouldn't try anything like this, too many witnesses. Not that they cared about collateral damage, but there were only two of them and out of such a sizeable group of people, somebody would survive and get away.

It was too risky.

Ignoring Munro’s rants, Billy Ray ran to his car and got in.

It had been fun while it lasted, but it looked like he actually wouldn’t have a job tomorrow. At least, not here.

Now he had something more important to take care of. He could still feel them slinking away into the darkness, but it wouldn’t take long for them to be out of his range.

 

::

Noonan pulled up outside the diner. It was an odd place for a rendezvous, but then Palmont was odd. He seemed to enjoy it, sensing and relishing the discomfiture it created in others.

So he didn’t let his mind wander too far on the reason for this sudden summons to a meeting among _humans_. He wrinkled his nose as a family of them passed the car, the smallest one crying bitterly over something and one of the adults rebuking it in response.

They were certainly not Noonan’s favourite creature.

He glanced at his watch, saw it was almost time, and got out of the car. The rain had been falling heavily most of the day and he turned his collar up, for all the good it did, then ran across the diner forecourt, and entered the single storey building.

The stink of humans, their food, all of it, had him fighting the urge to turn and go back outside so he could throw up. He swallowed a few times, forced a smile (in truth he’d never found it helped with the gag reflex but perhaps that was just him) and glanced around the tables.

There was a booth at the back, near the fire exit, and Palmont was there. He looked up and raised his hand in a ‘come here’ gesture, before returning his attention to the human couple in the booth in front of his.

Noonan sighed as he went over and sat down on the other side of the booth. He was barely settled when a waitress came over with a pad and pen, chewing gum with an annoying smacking sound.

“Get you anything, hon?”

Noonan picked up the menu, and wondered if any of them had even an idea how disgusting their appetites were.

But they had one saving grace.

“Coffee,” he said. “Black.”

She didn’t bother to write it down, just tsked him and walked away.

“She thinks you won’t tip her,” Palmont said, “if coffee is all you’re going to order.”

Noonan shrugged. She was right. “So, what do you want me for?”

Palmont wasn’t looking at him. He craned his neck to the side, and Noonan almost looked back when he realised he had seated himself in Palmont’s line of sight.

He hoped if Palmont was going to do something, that it was after he’d left. 

There were things other than human food that he just couldn’t stomach. Humans being one. 

“We ran into a problem.”

“Huh.” Noonan was distracted by the waitress returning with a coffee mug. She set it down sharply, and slopped some coffee into it and over the table. Then she withdrew, having made no attempt to mop up the obvious spill.

“Did you actually order anything?” He grabbed a napkin from the holder, soaked up the spillage and squeezed it out over the mug. Waste not, want not, as the humans said but didn’t seem to live by. He wasn’t above ground often enough to miss out on even a drop of the best thing to come out of creation.

“I told them I was waiting on a friend,” Palmont said. He grinned as if something about that was amusing.

Noonan couldn’t help it. He shifted a little to his right, and took a deep swig of he coffee as he glanced idly around.

He didn’t miss the sour look he got, or the way Palmont slide further to his right along the bench, his beady eyes once more fixing on the couple sitting behind them.

“Anyway,” Noonan said. If Palmont had called him here, then it had to be quite a problem; he guessed he was going to be the one to break the news.

“Right.” Palmont dragged his attention away from the humans and back to Noonan, though every few moments his gaze would drift over again. At one point he actually licked his lips, and Noonan hoped the humans around them were typically as ignorant of their surroundings as he’d come to expect. “So, as I said, problem. The one we sent Breagh and Riddrie after got away.”

Noonan drank some more coffee, and wondered how he was supposed to put a spin on that. “It won’t be happy.”

Palmont shrugged. “There’s still the other one. It’s probably for the best. If we presented the two of them together…. It might not be able to control itself.”

“And it’s my job to worry about that. It won’t be long until it’s restored; you know what’ll happen then. Where is the second one?”

If the first had slipped the net, then there was nothing to be done for it. Palmont was right, in a way. After so long going without, trapped, he couldn’t expect any kind of self control.

Keeping it from overindulging with the one they could hopefully capture would be difficult enough.

Palmont’s phone chirped and vibrated on the table. He picked it up, glanced at the screen and then set it back down.

“We know where he is,” Palmont said. “It’s getting him alone that’s the challenge. But we will. We’ll just follow him until there’s an opportunity.”

He made it sound so easy, as if they hadn’t tried and failed in getting the other one.

But then that side of things wasn’t his responsibility. He had his own job to do, even though it wasn’t one he remotely wanted. There was still part of him that wanted to flee, but he wasn’t a fool.

Someone else would be chosen, and he’d be hunted down. He’d rather live in subservience than be taken as sustenance.

He drained the last of the coffee, considered what Palmont had said, and dropped a twenty on the table.

“Aren’t you coming?”

Palmont glanced up at him briefly and then returned his attention to the couple. Now that Noonan was standing up, he had no obstacle to block his view.

“It’s still raining,” he said. “I think I’ll sit here until it’s done.”

Noonan didn’t linger. Before things got out of hand, as they undoubtedly would, he wanted to be far from here.

If Palmont wanted to live, he'd take no more than a few days. During that time, Noonan would be busy. 

He had preparations of his own to make.

Noonan hurried out to the car, and pulled quickly away from the diner.

Maybe fifteen minutes later, the first police car passed him, lights flashing, sirens wailing.

Noonan kept going. 

:::

The bunker had never looked so good to Dean as it did when they pulled up that night. He parked the Impala in her usual spot, killed the engine, and sat to watch as Sam backed their mom’s truck in near the door.

“We’re home, Cas,” he said. 

When he got no reply, he glanced over at the angel. Cas had barely said two words on the way home.

He still looked like shit, but then they had almost lost him. Dean was never getting the memory of Cas choking on the poison his body was trying to expel, out of his head. 

Maybe their mom had been right. Maybe it would have been smarter, kinder, to pull in and book a motel. He could have gotten Cas cleaned up, put him to bed, tried to get him some rest.

But it didn’t seem right to be cleaning Cas up in a motel room bathroom. Or setting him down on a bed that somebody had slept in maybe twenty four hours earlier, and somebody else would be maybe minutes after they left.

Home felt right. Safe. He wanted that thick steel door, and those warded walls, between his family and the world.

He wanted to take care of Cas in a place where the angel knew he’d be safe. That wasn’t some Motel 6 where the sheets hadn’t been changed.

Things had got kind of heated over that, until Sam had settled it by saying while they were arguing, Cas was still sitting in the car, in clothes stained with his own blood.

He still was, and that galvanised Dean into action.

He got out, and came around to Cas’s side of the car and opened the door. Cas still seemed out of it; he took a moment to look up at Dean, and his eyes were sad, almost haunted.

Yeah, it had been a shitty night.

“Come on, Cas,” Dean said. He held out his hand, for the second time that night. “Let’s get you downstairs.”

Sam was there a moment later, helping support Cas as they walked towards the stairs. They only paused when their mom called after them.

“Dean, Sam.”

They stopped, both glancing back at her over their shoulders. She was standing by her truck, hand resting on the driver’s door.

No fucking way.

“Cas, I’m sorry,” she said. “I never knew we were going up against a prince of hell. You got hurt because of me. But the boys will take care of you.”

“Mom,” Sam said. “We could use your help, here.”

Mary glanced from them to Cas and back to her truck. The decision was already made. She’d probably decided on the way home, and Dean wondered if that was the cause of their argument about coming straight back here or stopping off. Maybe she had someplace to be and returning to the bunker had taken her out of her way.

“Save it,” he told Sam. “We’ll manage.”

He eased Cas forward, aware the angel hadn’t answered Mary, and he doubted it was because Cas was in agreement over whose fault it was and was freezing her out. He’d seen Cas pissed, but the only time he carried a grudge was against people who’d hurt them.

It was never on his own behalf, and yeah, it was their mom’s fault. This had been her hunt, and she had thrown them all into the middle of a battle that she’d known nothing about.

The least she could have done was stay long enough to help them with Cas, but if she had someplace more important to be then she could take off. He was starting to get used to it.

Sam hesitated, but Dean kept going, which meant Cas kept going. So his little brother had a choice between letting go or keeping up.

He was grateful when Sam started to move again, and between them they managed to get Cas down the stairs.

By the time they were at the bottom, the thunk of the garage door closing was echoing down after them. 

Dean put the sound, and what it meant, straight out of his head. He had more important things to take care of.

::

When they passed his room, Cas made a small confused sound and peered back at the door longingly.

“Where are we going?”

His voice was still shaking, just like the rest of him. If it hadn’t been for Sam, Dean was sure he wouldn’t have been able to get Cas down the stairs let alone this far.

 _Fuck that bastard Ramiel_ , he snarled to himself. _He should have suffered the way Cas did_.

“We’re going to get you cleaned up,” he said. “And then we’re going to make sure everything is healed.”

“I really just want to rest,” Cas protested, and he sounded so pitiful that Dean almost caved and turned them around.

But Sam stepped in, his voice calm, reassuring. “Cas, you can, but you’ll be more comfortable once you’re clean. We just want to know you're okay.”

Dean was glad he didn’t mention why Cas needed cleaning. And his clothes…. If he didn’t think Cas would sulk like a child, he would toss them in the trash while the angel was resting, but Cas had gotten pretty attached to them.

Maybe, once he was fully recovered he could just zap them whole again. No massive tear where Ramiel’s lance had pierced the shirt and the angel beneath it. No bloody stains. No black sludge like slug trails where the poison in Cas’s body had seeped out through the wound, or marked the front when he’d vomited it up.

It would be hard to look at his clothes again and not remember all of that. But it was Cas’s decision. If he decided to dump them, Dean had stuff he could wear until they took him shopping.

He was surprised to feel a little excited at that prospect, not wholly an appropriate reaction given what would have lead to that little trip. But he put it down to Cas being alive which allowed that to be a possibility and letting them do something nice for him.

They could easily have been building a pyre right now.

That thought almost stopped Dean in his tracks, but he pushed it down. They weren’t. Instead they had Cas, warm and alive, and so damn exhausted that his head was drooping, supported between them, his feet dragging a little.

Yeah, a shower wasn’t going to work.

“Okay,” he said, “change of plans.”

That was how they ended up in his room, Cas perched on the edge of his bed, while Sam brought in a basin of warm water, some soap, cloths, and a towel.

Dean had Sam hold Cas up long enough to strip the covers from the bed. There were some old plastic mattress protectors he’d found in storage a while back, and kept instead of throwing out because their lives made it just likely enough that they’d need them.

He threw one over the top, and then they carefully set to stripping Cas of his clothes.

The blood, the sludgy poison, it stank. Dean had to breathe through his mouth as they eased off the trench, coat, shirt. If they looked bad, Cas's body was even worse.

Black and bloody streaks decorated his torso, and the wound, though closed and healed, was still visible in the shape of a jagged scar.

Would Cas be left with that, he wondered. Another memento of life with the Winchesters. Another reminder of why it was crazy to trust them. Crazy to stay.

He didn’t realise his fingers were skirting the edge of the scar, until Cas shifted awkwardly and Sam cleared his throat.

“How’d he get you, anyway?” Dean said. He hated himself the minute the words were out, but he wanted to know. It had happened when he hadn’t been there. He needed to know, and it distracted a little from the way they were both looking at him.

“Ramiel attacked us. He threw me through the window, and then stabbed me while I was on the ground.”

“And where was mom?” He didn’t miss how Cas had left her out of this shit sandwich.

“Dean, she couldn’t have fought a prince of hell.”

At that moment, he was glad she’d left. Yeah, they needed her. But then so had Cas, and it sounded like she’d taken off then too.

As if Cas could read his thoughts, the angel shook his head. “I sent her away. Ramiel would have killed her in that room.”

“He almost killed you.”

“And he would have finished me if Mary hadn’t run him over with her truck. She got me to the barn. She dressed my wounds. This isn’t her fault.”

“Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, Cas, it is. Because none of us would have been there if it wasn’t for her, and I still feel like we don’t know what that was all for.”

He could feel Sam’s disapproval, but he wasn’t going to pretend that this was all okay. It wasn’t. So she needed time away from them, time to get used to being back, to having two grown sons instead of the four year old and the baby she left behind.

That was rough, but since then it had gotten worse, and he couldn’t shake the conviction that she was keeping things from them.

This…. This just proved it.

“We should make a start,” Sam said. 

“Right. Okay Cas, kick off your shoes.”

He did so, and they finally had him stripped down to his boxers. It took both of them to lie him flat on the bed, the plastic cover crinkling as he gingerly stretched out.

The filth on his stomach had to go first. Dean did that, scrubbing carefully with the cloth, rinsing it off, trying again. It was like the blood and poison had been sealed to his skin, but finally it started to lift.

Sam did Cas’s neck, wiping away the residue he’d vomited up. He then carefully cleaned the angel’s fingers, and under his nails, where there was still blood caked.

By the time they were done, Cas was a little pink in places from their intense efforts to get him clean, but, other than his lack of the tax accountant outfit, he didn’t look like he’d been a minute from death only a few hours earlier.

The scar was also gone.

Sam yawned, and Dean smirked a little at his brother as he rubbed a hand across his eyes.

“Get out of here before you fall over and crush one of us,” Dean said. It felt good to tease him again. It made things feel a little more normal.

“You sure?”

Dean nodded. 

“Sam,” Cas said. “Thank you.”

Dean watched as Sam reached down and squeezed Cas’s hand. “I'm glad you’re okay, Cas. Don’t scare us like that again, okay? G’night.”

After Sam left it took him a moment to find his voice. 

“What he said,” he told Cas as he picked up one of the fluffy towels, a new one he noticed, that Sam had brought through. “I damn well mean that.”

He patted Cas dry, stomach, neck, arms and hands, and then coaxed the angel to stand long enough for him to peel back the plastic sheeting, and remake the bed.

He kept an eye on him as he did so, gratified to note that while Cas didn’t move from where he’d put him next to the wall, he wasn’t swaying as much as before.

“I didn’t do it on purpose,” Cas said, and he sounded almost petulant.

Dean hid his grin by ducking his head to finish tucking under the sheets. Looked like he was feeling better.

Then he straightened up and grabbed some sleepwear from his closet and reached across the bed with it.

“You manage to get into these?”

Cas glanced at them as if Dean was holding out a serpent and then his gaze tracked to the discarded clothing on the floor.

“No way,” Dean said. “You’re not up to fixing them yet, and you’re not sleeping in blood and whatever-that-shit-was stained clothing.”

“I don’t sleep,” Cas reminded him.

Dean huffed at him. “I’ve a feeling you’ll make an exception tonight. Get changed for bed.”

He was a little confused when Cas turned and started for the door.

“Uh, where are you going?”

Cas stopped and looked back at him. “My room,” he said, as if the answer was somewhat obvious and Dean was confusing him by asking.

A little voice in Dean screamed that this was his last chance to back out. He could tell Cas goodnight, let him go back to his own room, and just lie here thinking what a close call that was.

But if he did that, Dean knew he’d lie awake all night, and it wouldn't be _that_ close call he’d be thinking about.

If he couldn’t do this now, after what had happened, then he didn’t deserve to do it at all, and he certainly didn’t deserve Cas.

“No, Cas,” he said. “I want you in here tonight. So I can keep an eye on you.”

Cas came back towards the bed. “But where will you sleep?”

Dean fought the urge to roll his eyes. He patted the bed. “Same place, other side. Get changed, I’ll be back in a few.”

He grabbed his own tee and sleep pants from the closet and hurried along to the bathroom.

In hindsight, it seemed a little weird to be worrying about getting changed in front of Cas. He had just given the guy a bed bath, and he was pretty sure Cas had seen every bit of him when he was putting him back together after hell, but he figured getting over one of his hangups at a time was enough.

::

When he returned to the room, Cas had changed. But he was standing awkwardly by the bed, staring at it like it was a new human invention he hadn't managed to figure out yet. 

Dean eased him aside and pulled back the covers. “You getting in?”

He didn't let himself look at Cas’s face. He wasn't sure what he’d see there. Would it be his own nervousness reflected back at him? Would Cas hide too late his disdain for the idea of sleeping next to him?

When he sensed no movement from across the bed, he had to look up, worried that Cas was about to pass out on him. 

In that moment he saw what Cas’s problem was. 

He looked wrong footed, like he’d been offered something he didn't know how to deal with. 

For a moment, Dean wanted to remind Cas that he and Sam had just bathed him on this bed. Actually getting under the covers next to him was not that big a deal. 

Except it was and they both knew it. Because aside from Cas nearly dying, something else had happened tonight and, in a way, it had changed everything. 

“Come on, Cas,” Dean said gently. “Let’s get you settled.”

He waited until Cas was in before he followed and pulled the covers up over them. 

For a moment they both just lay there, and Dean started to wonder if maybe he should just have sat up in the chair. He shrugged to himself. He’d made his bed, in oh so many ways, and now he was literally lying in it. 

He reached over to turn off the light, a muttered “Night, Cas,” sounding more frustrated than he intended, when Cas’s hand was suddenly on his arm. 

“Dean, could you…. Would leaving it on bother you at all?”

Dean stared at him. It was rare to see Cas so stripped and honest, but Dean figured he hadn't put himself back together enough to have his stoic angel mask back in place yet. 

And maybe, he thought, if he’d almost died in some dingy barn he’d want a little light to push the darkness back as well. 

The only problem with that was Dean suspected his own face was just as open and he wasn't sure he was ready just yet for Cas to see it all. 

Or maybe he was. 

“It’s no problem,” he said. He dropped his arm back and didn't miss that Cas hadn't let go. 

“I just,” Cas began, but he trailed off as if he couldn't find words to explain. 

“I get it,” Dean said. “But nothing's getting in here, Cas. We’re safe tonight.”

Cas nodded, but he didn't seem any less tense. He lay there, looking at the ceiling and finally Dean couldn't take it anymore. 

He, too, kept his eyes looking up. Safer that way. Easier. “Hell of a night.”

Cas huffed and Dean risked a sideways glance. He wasn't expecting to see a faint grin. 

“In more ways than one.”

::

To be honest, Dean hadn’t expected Cas to stay the whole night. Angels didn’t sleep: even, it seemed, ones who’d just been stabbed, poisoned, and then rescued last minute by the King of Hell.

Maybe Cas had been humouring him, or maybe he’d realised half way through the night that he’d be safe anywhere in the bunker. He didn’t need to be lying next to a human.

So Dean lay there, eyes closed, remembering what it felt like to have Cas in his bed. Just being there. Alive, and warm, and …. 

“Good morning, Dean.”

Still there, apparently.

Dean pushed himself up on his elbows, and glanced over at Cas. The angel was sitting up, pillows propped between him and the headboard, with Sam's laptop balanced on his thighs.

“Hey,” he said. Which, you know, smooth.

Cas gave him a slight smile and glanced back at the laptop.

“What you watching?” Dean shifted onto his side, and peered at the screen. 

A baby panda was roughhousing with its keeper, hanging off the guy’s leg as he tried to distract it with food. 

Unsuccessfully.

Cas actually chuckled, and Dean knew he was wearing a goofy grin but right then he didn’t even care.

Sam cleared his throat, and Dean glanced over to find his brother standing in the doorway, arms folded, watching them.

His face said it all. “So, you two slept well?”

If his face didn’t, his voice made it pretty clear what was going through his head.

“Don’t,” Dean warned. 

Sam put on his best innocent look. Dean wasn’t fooled for a second. 

“I can’t help it,” he said. “You just look so..you know…”

Dean grabbed the pillow from behind him and lobbed it at the doorway. Sam had already ducked out into the hallway, so he missed his target.

“Cute,” Sam called back, and then Dean heard him walking away, laughing his giant moose head off.

Little shit.

He felt Cas watching him, and shrugged as he met the angel’s eyes. “Kid thinks he’s funny.”

“Dean, if me sleeping in here made you uncomfortable-” He frowned, and closed over the laptop. “I have a room of my own. I’d have been fine there.”

 _Yeah, thanks Sammy_. “No, Cas,” he said. “Sam just thinks it’s hilarious because he’s an asshole. I meant what I said last night. I wanted to make sure you were ok.”

Cas didn’t seem too convinced. He put the laptop down between them, and stood up. “I am,” he said. “Thank you.”

Dean kicked the covers back and got up himself. “Look, Cas, it’s okay. There’s no rush, you know?”

Cas scooped up his clothes. He separated them out, taking in the damage. “I know,” he said. “But there is. Kelly is still out there. If Ramiel was right, and Dagon is looking for her, then we have to find her first.”

“I know.” And he did. He got it. But last night, he’d been convinced Cas was going to die painfully in front of them. He doubted Cas was ‘okay’. But even if he was, Dean wasn’t. He wasn’t going to just shake this off, not quite yet.

And another day, or two, surely, would be okay. A chance for them to get their feet back under them. 

For him to work himself up to what he wanted to say, because he’d felt within touching distance of it, of Cas, last night, and now it seemed like he was back where he’d started.

“I’ll see you at breakfast,” Cas said. He was gone before Dean could say anything, which was maybe just as well because at that point he wasn’t even sure where he’d start.

::

“Did Garth say why he was fielding his one to us?” Sam asked.

Dean indicated, and switched lanes, sliding smartly between a BMW and a plumber’s van. “Nope. Probably breaks some kind of werewolf etiquette or something. Maybe they’re too busy howling at the moon. I don’t know, okay?”

He saw Sam shake his head out of the corner of his eye. “What?”

“It is not my fault Cas took off, dude.”

“Who said it was?”

Sam huffed at him. “You’ve been in a shitty mood since he left. He can look after himself you know. And with all of us looking for Kelly, we stand a better chance of finding her sooner.”

Dean sped up a little and overtook some piece of crap Volvo that was struggling along with smoke belching from its exhaust. The state some people let their cars get into.

He could feel Sam watching him, watching the speedometer and silently, or not so silently, judging him.

“Look, Dean-”

“Ok, I get it. He’s a big angel, he can handle himself, he’s got Crowley for back up. Yeah, he’ll be fine.”

Except he’d had them, and their mom, and Crowley twenty four hours ago, and had still ended up bleeding out on a ratty old couch.

Anyway, it was their job, his job, to watch Cas’s back. 

Despite that, he didn’t know where Cas was right that minute, but they were probably miles from him and getting further away so they could pick up Garth’s slack on a hunt he and his pack were too ass lazy to bother with.

“He will,” Sam insisted. “But that's not what this is about, is it?”

Dean glared at the truck in front. If it could get above fifty anytime soon then maybe they’d actually get somewhere. 

“I’d rather you talk to me about it than ram us into something.”

Oh, that did it. The next exit was theirs anyway. Dean pulled up as soon as he could and twisted angrily in his seat. 

“I had to get you to talk somehow.” Sam raised his hands placatingly. “It’s like you’ve been looking for somebody to shoot since he left.”

“Yeah?” Well, now that Sam mentioned it. “I wonder why.”

He shoved open the door and got out, barely keeping himself from slamming it behind him. None of this was Baby’s fault.

Sam jumped out after him and came around the car. “Okay, so I get you think I screwed up, I just don’t know how. Care to clue me in?”

Dean rounded on him, but frustration left him speechless. What exactly was he going to say? _I was going to tell Cas...and then you put your Sasquatch feet right in that humongous mouth of yours and made it so damn awkward he took off._

True and not true. For sure, Sam’s teasing, though harmless in and of itself, had just been bad timing. But it had taken an hour for Cas to reappear in his usual attire, mercifully made whole once more (not that it helped eradicate the memories of the night before), announce during breakfast that he was going to rendezvous with Crowley and continue searching for Kelly, pack his bag and go.

There had been time. If Dean had been serious, there had been time.

But not the right moment, and Dean wanted to kick himself. There was never going to be a right moment, it seemed. Maybe it was time he accepted that, and just said it. But now he’d have to wait for Cas to return to them or them to catch up to him.

Sam stood patiently, as if he could see Dean processing it all, working it through in his head.

“I’m sorry,” he said, after a while. “You were going to tell him that morning, weren’t you?”

“Guess not,” Dean said. “It's not your fault. I had the whole damn night. And then before he left. I could have said something then. What the hell is wrong with me?”

He rested his forearms on Baby’s roof, and thumped his forehead down onto them. 

Sam’s hand came to rest heavy on his back. “In general?”

Dean tilted his head to the side enough to glare at him from one eye, prompting a chuckle.

“Nothing,” Sam said. His voice, now, was heavy. He was pushing everything he had into it, and Dean straightened up, aware that maybe it hurt Sam to think his big brother wasn’t doing so well with this. That he thought ill of himself.

He didn’t get that, but all the same the sentiment was appreciated.

“You just don’t believe you deserve anything good,” Sam continued. “When you deserve everything good, Dean. You’ve taken care of so many people, saved so many lives and there’s still something in you that thinks that’s all you’re good for.”

“You gotta play the hand you’re dealt, Sam,” he said. He shook himself angrily. That had sounded pathetic and bitter even to him.

“Yeah, I’ll kick your ass if you say that again,” Sam said. “Then I’ll call Cas and he’ll come kick your ass. Angelically, of course. It’ll be like a nonverbal ass kicking. He’ll just stare at you until you feel guilty and come around.”

“If he comes back,” Dean said.

Sam yanked him into a hug. “He always comes back to us, Dean. To you. And I know I'm not the only one who heard what he said in the barn that night. Now he’s got even more reason to come home.”

Dean hugged Sam back and then squirmed out of his grip. “I’m bruised tomorrow and I will shoot you,” he sniped, though the smile he forced hopefully satisfied his brother for now.

They got back in, and Dean waited for a break in the traffic, indicated, and pulled out.

Cas was out there, with Crowley as his only backup, on the hunt for Lucifer’s love child. With a Prince of Hell, like the one that had almost killed him, potentially on a intercept course.

Maybe incentive this time wouldn’t be enough to bring Cas back to him. But Cas had been right when he’d said they had to find Kelly before Dagon did. 

So as soon as this hunt was done, Dean would be getting Cas’s location and heading out to meet him. And whatever happened then, he was going to tell Cas. And then he wasn’t letting that angel out of his sight again.

::

Cas glanced at his watch. It was more than an hour since Crowley was meant to meet him to begin interviewing witnesses who might have a lead on Kelly’s whereabouts, and there was still no sign of him.

He snatched his cell phone from his pocket and dialled the demon’s number. LIke the past four times, it went to voicemail, and Castiel rolled his eyes at the overlong message.

There was no point in saying anything, since he didn’t believe for a moment Crowley had simply forgot he’d agreed to help with this. Finding Kelly, dealing with the nephilim before it could be born and give Lucifer the key to more power or become a threat in its own right, these things had to be a priority for all of them.

If the nephilim freed its father, or decided to claim dominion for itself, no one would be safe, whether in Heaven, on Earth, or in Hell. Crowley would lose the power and the throne he had connived and deceived his way to obtaining. He would probably also lose his life, though the demon had proved himself remarkably indestructible up until now.

Still, the threat, Castiel had presumed, would be motive enough to have Crowley on board for this.

He quickly typed out a text, considered whether it was too hard - Crowley could be easily prodded into fits of pique for someone who had survived the rigours of Hell - but then hit send anyway.

He was tired of tiptoeing around in return for Crowley’s so called co-operation.

It took a moment for his phone to chirp and alert him to a reply.

**_Sorry, feathers. Something came up. Official Hell business. Try not to mess things up. Or get killed. I don’t want any weepy drunk texts from Squirrel._ **

Castiel huffed and turned his gaze skyward. At times like this, before the revelation, before his fall, weary and apparently abandoned by their lukewarm ally, he would have sought solace in the authority of Heaven.

He knew better now. Even if his Father was still in situ, he would have even less interest in matters than Crowley.

Not to mention what Cas’s punishment would have been for associating with a demon.

But it didn’t matter. He was more than capable of asking questions of those who might know Kelly’s whereabouts, who might have seen or heard something that could set him on her trail.

Hopefully before Dagon caught up with her, since Castiel doubted he would be any more victorious in his second encounter with a prince of hell than with his first.

Of course, when Dean found out he had undertaken this search alone, he could predict the hunter’s reaction. 

He would, at best, be extremely displeased.

Castiel winced at the thought of Dean snarling at him, covering his worry and protectiveness with sarcastic jibes. That he knew it stemmed from Dean being so desperate to keep his family safe didn’t make it hurt any less, but he had no choice in this.

He wasn’t to know Crowley would desert the search, just as Dean and Sam couldn’t help being called to another hunt. Even with Kelly’s whereabouts unknown, other creatures still prowled the Earth, putting innocents in danger.

They couldn’t abandon those people. 

All the same, he considered briefly sending Dean a text, just to keep him informed. The danger of that, though, was that Dean would try and pass the hunt to someone else, or more likely order him to wait until they could join him before he went any further.

But he could do this, and waiting could only make it harder to find Kelly. By the time Dean and Sam came to join him, he wanted to know where she was. If possible, he wanted her to be with him, safe and ready to retreat to the bunker, where even a Prince of Hell couldn’t venture.

The last time he’d seen Dean, Cas had been weak and hurt and shaken. He’d pulled himself together as quickly as he could, but it was no surprise Dean had felt awkward around him.

He was supposed to be stronger than them. But again they’d been forced to watch him on the cusp of death. They’d placed themselves in danger to protect him, refusing to abandon him to Ramiel. 

And then to compound his weakness, he had caved and spoken those fateful words. Since he hadn't expected to survive, he hadn't given thought to the consequences. All he’d wanted was to tell his family that he loved them. 

To tell Dean that he loved him most of all. 

He knew Dean understood and that, since he had survived, it had put him in a very awkward position. Cas knew he should be grateful that Dean had allowed him to remain so close that night. 

While Dean had slept, Cas had lain awake trying to find a way to fix things. Not to withdraw what he’d said. He could never. But he had to find a way to remove any sense of obligation he had placed on Dean. 

In the years since, Cas had realised he’d loved Dean more than as an angel for his charge or a friend or a brother….

He was a fool. Dean had made his feelings clear. He had told Castiel where the boundaries lay. Dying was no excuse for crossing them. 

In the end, he’d decided leaving was the only responsible action to take. Dean's reaction to Sam’s teasing had only confirmed it. 

Also, Kelly still had to be found so he had justification in going. Dean’s vociferous objection had caught him by surprise but then he realised it was to be expected.

Given what had happened, how intent Dean had been on keeping him close, Cas realised Dean probably anticipated him getting into trouble again if he ventured out alone or even with the dubious back up, now non-existent, provided by Crowley. 

It hurt that he didn't have the trust of the people he’d come to call family. But, in the end, he only had himself to blame. 

It was time to redress the balance. 

Cas climbed into his truck, called up the address of the first witness, and pulled away from the kerb.

::

Noonan shivered as he entered the catacombs. The ground sloped sharply down and the light seemed to give way immediately to darkness. 

The air was cooler as well, but it wasn't responsible for his reaction. Even though he knew they weren’t quite _there_ yet, even though he was as bound to all of this as it was possible to be, it didn’t help any.

It was too late to think of running, but the urge was overwhelming all the same. 

His footsteps echoing loudly, he followed the winding passage further into the darkness until it widened out into a large chamber.

The walls rose high above him, the runes carved into the stone contributing to a heavy, almost suffocating weight despite the height of the ceiling.

Thick pillars situated every twenty metres or so broke up the open space, though the doorless ante-rooms, four to each side, and of fair size themselves, helped present an illusion of the room being even larger than it was.

All the same, it was the sarcophagus in the centre that his eyes were drawn to.

The stone coffin itself was no bigger than the size of a man, only deep enough and wide enough to hold one. But around it… 

Noonan had to force himself to look, fighting the small voice in his head that told him it was reckless. Not forbidden, but not recommended.

The stone shape, coiled almost possessively around the sarcophagus, seemed to look back at him. Even through granite grey eyes.

Sometimes, Noonan wondered if they were actually mad. 

Either way, they were committed. He had no doubt that if he turned heretic, he would be hunted down. 

And his fate…

He glanced at the stone effigy once more.

No. There would be nowhere on this world, or any of the worlds that bordered it, he could hide for long.

He moved to the end of the sarcophagus and pushed the lid back. It grated loudly in the silence and then thumped as it came to rest against the side of the coffin. Even though he knew it would take more than that, he still cringed and backed away.

After the last echo faded, there was silence once more. Nothing moved except him, as he crept forward again.

The sigils inside the tomb were perfect. They would reinforce the other inhibitors of the catacombs and hopefully make their task a little easier.

This part of it anyway.

Noonan heard the tiniest sound then; a rough groan that he could almost have imagined.

It sounded impatient.

It sounded hungry.

He bowed quickly, and fled back the way he had come.

::

There were no good hunts. Usually, by the time they got there, somebody was already hurt or dead, and somebody else had lost someone they loved. 

Somebody’s world had been torn apart.

But hunts involving kids were the absolute worst, and Dean couldn't get Reena Marshall’s stunned expression out of his mind.

When they’d visited her, under the guise of FBI agents, she’d barely seemed to register their presence.

A neighbour was there, and had taken them aside, and told them what he could. That Reena had found the babysitter at the foot of stairs with a broken neck.

But bad as that had been, worse was to come and even though it had been two days, her head was still refusing to accept what had happened.

“There’s no doubt about the lore?” 

Sam was sitting opposite him at the small motel room table. He’d been mostly quiet since they’d returned there after interviewing Marshall. Dean hadn’t tried to draw him out. He hadn’t felt much like talking himself. 

It wasn’t like either of them expected life to be fair, and if Dean had been in any doubt, his day long stint as Death had hammered home the lesson. But holy shit, to lose her husband days after the birth of their baby, and now to lose the child too.

Sam swung the laptop around. The picture Dean could have done without, but this creature was a new one on them. So shockingly rare that even their dad’s journal had nothing on it and that was almost a monster almanac!

What information they had came from the Men of Letters’ archive. It was as thorough as they supposed it could be for a creature that struck three times every twenty five years and only on the full moon.

At least the lore was able to confirm that a blessed round was enough to kill the monster and, thanks to the angel in the family, they had those aplenty.

“None,” Sam said, and he sounded like for once he desperately wanted the perfect Men of Letters to have screwed up on the research. “It leaves rocks…. It leaves rocks as a form of payment. An exchange.”

To Dean it was just a mockery of that mother’s pain. He thought of the crime scene pictures, the babysitter lying like a broken toy.

He couldn’t imagine how horrified she must have been to see what was in the baby’s room, or what was coming down the stairs to get her once it realised it wasn’t alone. 

“It’s not taking any more kids, Sam. Not after tonight.” Because if it kept to its pattern, there were still two more killings, and it wasn't happening. No matter what it took, this would be over by dawn. 

::

There were some things most hunts had in common, and the most basic of these was to get a feel for the town before they did anything at all.

That first drive around in the early afternoon had given them the rough layout of the place, and helped them find an abandoned house maybe a mile from Reena Marshall’s home.

By then they already had a plan sketched out for how to kill the thing they were after, but a location for their trap was vital.

It had the added benefit of being on the other side of town from the sheriff’s office, which would hopefully give them the extra few minutes they needed to make a run for it before any of the local cops came out in response to the 911s.

There were a lot of things people tended to turn a blind eye to, especially if there was a chance they’d get dragged into something.

But gunfire in a small town in an abandoned house next to the place where you, your spouse and maybe your kids were sleeping, wouldn't be one.

They’d already checked out of the motel. Everything packed up and back in the Impala’s trunk, and it was parked behind the house where they could reach it fast, but it wouldn’t be visible to any curtain twitchers.

So now, squatted next to his brother in the closet, shotguns ready, Dean knew they had nothing to do but wait.

The creature (the Men of Letters’ lore had named it as a Bregada, some kind of Celtic vampire) was basically an animal, but certainly not dumb.

They’d figured the reason it had started at Reena Marshall’s house, was that the babysitter, a little hungover from a party she’d attended the night before, had turned out all the lights and fell asleep on the couch.

The Bregada had been searching for an easy meal, and seeing a quiet house in darkness, with the only movement within coming from its next victim, had lifted a window sash and slipped inside.

Dean still figured that the babysitter had gotten the biggest fright of the two when the thing had discovered they each weren’t alone in the house with the baby.

Its preferences known, they’d done all they could to make this house seem more tempting than any other. The bedroom window was open. A last minute trip to the local kids’ store had yielded a basic crib and one of those creepy life like dolls.

The crib was now set up in the middle of the room, the doll tucked in, and Dean was starting to get cramp.

“Maybe it hunts by scent,” he whispered. If that were the case, they’d be waiting here for nothing. The stink of cheap plastic probably wasn’t as appealing as actual baby-smell.

Sam shrugged. In the darkness, in the small space, there wasn’t any chance of him whipping out his phone to make sure the Men hadn’t specified the method the Bregada employed in tracking down its victims and they’d maybe missed it.

He was sure they hadn’t. All they’d said was it found the children, it drained them, and it left rocks behind like some kind of twisted payment. And then…

Well, there wouldn’t be any more ‘and thens’ even if Dean had to drive past every house and use his creds to check in every nursery in the whole damn town.

He still felt, though, that the Bregada right now would be hungry and desperate. It’d managed one out of three so far, and Dean knew, understanding from his time raising Sam, the fear instinctive to parents when another child fell to harm near their own, very few if any parents would be leaving their kids alone tonight.

He just wanted this hunt over, so he knew that no more kids would be in danger, not now or in twenty five years. And so he could get them out of this town, find out where Cas was, and get themselves back to him. 

Because then Dean would have something important to say, but for now he had something important to do.

There was a shadow at the window, and even as Dean reached out to tap his brother’s knee he knew Sam had seen it as well.

The picture in the Men of Letters’ records certainly didn’t do it justice.

Once it was in the room, and straightened up, Dean figured it was about the height of a German Shepherd dog. Long ears flicked up and then dropped back to hang limply against the sides of its head, giving it the look of a malicious rabbit. The arms, a little too long for its body, ended in razor sharp talons.

But the mouth. It looked like someone had taken the maw of a lamprey and stitched it onto the thing. It was all teeth, arranged in a wide circle, row after row, hooked inward like barbs.

They stayed still as stone as the thing inched its way towards the crib, making small snuffling noises with every step.

It hesitated for a moment, and Dean was ready to jump out in case it somehow wised up and made a break for the window, but Sam sensed his concern and grabbed his wrist, shaking his head in the dark.

The Bregada jumped.

It landed in the centre of the crib, and snatched the doll up into a bone crushing hug. As they watched, rocks clacked one by one from beneath it and Dean exchanged a disgusted look with Sam.

What the fuck was this thing?

But then the ruse was up. Cold plastic didn’t feel the same as warm human flesh and the moment the Bregada realised it had been tricked it threw the doll aside, smashing it against the wall.

Then it turned angry yellow eyes on the closet.

The brothers burst out, shotguns raised. Sam moved to block the window, while Dean went left to cut off the door, both ensuring the other wasn’t in their line of fire.

The Bregada looked calmly from one of them to the other, its circular jaw flexing, and then Dean felt his stomach take a lurch.

It was smiling.

That was when it launched itself at him.

::

The urge to keep going was almost overwhelming, but Cas knew from the Winchesters that unless the line of enquiry was urgent, and it was to him, but not to humans who didn’t know they had only a matter of months before Lucifer’s offspring was born into the world, FBI agents did not generally question witnesses in the middle of the night.

The whereabouts of a woman who might have bought a bus ticket, or eaten at their diner, or passed them on the street while they were playing truant was probably not enough reason to wake the people he needed to speak to, and he doubted they would let him in at such an hour anyway.

Sam and Dean might have had more success, but then Cas had seen how confidently they portrayed their roles. As if they believed it.

He walked in knowing he was lying. His ID was fake. His reason for questioning the people on his list was fake. 

And he suspected some of them knew that he knew, and that was a possible explanation for why, even though his questions were innocuous enough, some people had been evasive or refused to co-operate at all.

Dean had once told him that some people simply disliked authority figures.

Cas stood now, staring at himself in the bathroom mirror of the motel room he’d booked, and did not see such a person standing there looking back at him.

Once, perhaps. He had worn the authority of Heaven as armour, sure that his orders, his mission, was just.

In time he had come to realise it was not, and since then Cas felt he had been stripped bare of all that he was before.

Dean told him sometimes that it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Before he had been Heaven’s pawn, a soldier, and now he chose the path he followed. He had also ‘lost the stick from up his ass’.

But Dean, Cas realised, also didn’t understand. In some ways he was right, but Cas knew he could never fully know what it felt like to be something created for a sole purpose, to follow the Word of God, and then have that purpose exposed as the ultimate abuse of power.

He was grateful that Dean would never know.

Although, he supposed, Dean knew enough, and sometimes Cas wondered how either of the brothers could look at him.

Maybe...Maybe it was best if he simply continued searching for Kelly, and once he had found her, left the Winchesters out of it. And when that situation had been dealt with, even though at present he had no idea of a solution, there would be other things to take care of. Creatures to hunt. Although his experience with the vampires had shown him there was more to it than simply smiting them. 

People to help and to heal.

He would miss the brothers, and he supposed they would miss him. Their concern and affection he knew was genuine, but he had, by himself and as an agent of Heaven, brought problems and danger to their door.

They wouldn't miss that, and it would make things easier for Dean. Sam too. He owed them both that, at least.

He took off his coat and jacket, and sat down on the edge of the bed. Until tomorrow morning, when the people he had to ask about Kelly would be awake and hopefully receptive to his questions, there was little he could do.

Cas set his phone on the bedside unit and wondered if the brothers had finished their hunt and were now pursuing their own leads on Kelly, and if they were doing any better than him.

He thought it likely that they were. 

::

Thank fuck, Dean thought, as he pushed the Impala as fast as she would go, that those things only turned up once every twenty five years.

He glanced quickly at Sam, reassured himself that his little brother was no more hurt than he was himself, and then gave up on holding back his laughter.

It was loud, and a little wild, but he didn’t care. They’d made it out alive, stopped that thing from taking any more kids, and now that they were done…

They could get back to Cas. Yes, the problem of Kelly and her baby still hung over them, but right now all Dean wanted was his family back together.

They would take whatever came after that, because if they were together they _could_ take it and beat it. 

He’d make sure of it.

Sam was staring at him, a mix of amusement and concern. “You okay?”

Dean nodded. He got it, he was acting a little over the top, but he couldn’t deny his elation. It was the first time in a long time that he’d felt like they weren’t staggering from one beating to the next, with zero recovery time in between.

Maybe it was kind of a weird state of mind with another world ending scenario bubbling away in the background but, for once, everything seemed to be finding its place in the list of priorities.

Cas...He was pretty much at the top. 

Sam too, but Dean was done letting the angel slip down the list and through the cracks. He knew had a fight on his hands, in more ways than one.

“When we catch him up,” he said, “we’re gonna have a talk. You too. He’s probably not going to listen to me.”

Sam looked shocked, but Dean could see the mirth underneath. “Yeah, I think you’re old enough to ask him out on your own, Dean.”

Dean took one hand off the steering wheel long enough to swat at him. “Smartass. I got that covered, Sammy.” Or at least, he hoped he did, because one of those battles he had to fight would be against his own damn self. “But you know he’s been slipping lately. You’ve seen it.”

Sam sobered. “Maybe Netflix and chill wasn’t the best advice, huh.”

Dean tsked him. “To get over being turned rabid by Rowena? Yeah, yeah, it was. But he’s been struggling for a while and we...I…. I let it slide.”

“Dean, it’s not like we didn’t have a lot on our plate.”

Which was true, Dean wouldn’t deny it. They’d barely had time to take a breath before the next crisis dragged them under. But if something had to give, get pushed aside… It shouldn't have been anyone Dean called family.

Growing up, raising Sam…. He was used to needs must, to being the one to go hungry when there wasn’t enough food, or endure fever and pain when they were both sick but had only enough Tylenol or cough medicine for one and no cash for a walk in.

He’d been indoctrinated and he knew it. In some way, he’d tried to squash Cas into the structure his life had been twisted into. But there just wasn’t a receptacle that Cas fit easily.

He remembered being so angry at Cas for taking off with the angel tablet that he’d tried to ground him. Dean chuckled at the memory.

What happened next hadn’t been funny at all, but it proved his point.

Cas wasn’t Sam. He wasn’t Dean’s kid, and he wasn’t…. Despite what he’d said during that drive for booze they didn’t need, Cas wasn’t his brother either. The angel was definitely a brother to Sam, and Dean knew that without having to ask or hear it.

He saw the tactics he’d used to try and keep Cas close and safe, and each time he’d somehow set himself up to fail. Because he’d picked the wrong battle and ended up fighting Cas instead of tackling the reason Cas threw himself into the fire every damn chance he got.

He didn’t think he’d ever taken the chance to tell Cas why he wanted him to stay. Why he should class the bunker as home. Why he needed to stop using himself as a weapon or a strategy (even though Dean knew there were times, through desperation, that he’d let Cas, even encouraged him).

Why when Cas had been so to the bone honest with him that night in the barn, Dean hadn’t been able to say it back.

It had been running through every inch of him, and he wondered if he’d hurt Cas by not responding in kind. Even moments from losing him, he couldn’t push out the words.

But he would. They’d meet up with him, and Dean would tell him, then he and Sam would find a way to get Cas on his feet, and keep him there.

Keep him safe. 

“Dean,” Sam said. “I wanna get to Cas too, but until we know where he is, maybe a little under a hundred would be smarter.”

Dean huffed at him, but he eased up on the gas, and then nudged his brother with his elbow.

“Deal. Go ring our angel. Tell him we’re on our way.”

::

Cas smiled as Mrs Baker came in with a tray. He stood, took it from her, then put it down on the table. She had him sit back down, and told him about her cat, and her grandchildren, and how her new neighbours weren’t as nice as the couple who’d lived there before.

She poured them both tea and offered Cas a fine china cup, with hands that shook a little.

“That young woman who helped me when I dropped my shopping? I do hope she isn’t in some kind of trouble.”

 _More than she can handle_ , Cas thought. But aloud, all he said was, “We just want to locate her, Mrs Baker. Did she perhaps say anything to you about where she was going, or staying? Anything at all might help.”

It was the truth, and he'd felt more comfortable coming from that position. It also seemed to have helped persuade the people he questioned to be more open and helpful.

Unfortunately, like Mrs Baker, though they were more forthcoming than the people he’d interviewed yesterday or the day before, they knew little that could aid him in tracking Kelly down.

They’d all said she looked healthy, though worried and distracted. That she seemed kind, and also that she was beginning to show.

But for someone who had never gone on the run before, Kelly had quickly learned how to cover her tracks. She’d given nothing away to any of the people he’d spoken to and using the hacking skills Sam had taught him, Cas knew her credit cards hadn’t been used. She hadn’t withdrawn money from her bank account either, and no car rentals were registered against her driving licence.

If she was still nearby, he had no way of finding her, and if she moved on, as she inevitably would, he would have no chance of finding out where she went. 

The trail after she’d fled from him at the diner had definitely gone cold, and he had no idea where to go from here.

He stayed a little longer with Mrs Baker. She seemed lonely and, with no direction to take, there seemed no harm. It also gave him the chance to heal her ailing kidneys and deal with the palsy that made her hands shake. 

Before he finally took his leave, though, he reasoned she must have sensed somehow what he’d done. She hugged him tightly, wished him well and told him that wherever he went God would be watching over him.

Cas thanked her, but he knew her prayer was in vain. His Father had watched him be torn apart by Raphael and raised not a hand to prevent it. Cas knew his Father had heard each and every one of his desperate prayers over the years, some made when he was on his knees - literally and figuratively - and ignored every one.

But it was the breathtaking cruelty of seeing fit only to send him, alone, back to aid Sam and Dean when his help alone was not enough. When God could have done more. When he could have intervened earlier.

Not to mention sending him back thinking each resurrection was a punishment, when in fact that level of thought would have at least shown some interest. Instead, he was simply being repaired and loaned back out, with no idea who was behind it.

He still wasn’t sure if it had been worse not knowing, or learning who had been responsible and why from Dean and Sam. 

Not even from his Father.

And when Cas had finally been reunited with him, Chuck had ignored his possession by Lucifer, and made peace only with his favoured son who had tried to destroy the world.

Now they both knew it had been a means to an end. 

As he made his way to the truck, he felt Mrs Baker watching him from the window, and turned to wave.

She waved back, smiling warmly at him, and Cas was loath to look away, but he turned to unlock the door.

“I was starting to think you would never come out of there,” someone said. “But here you are.”

Cas turned sharply and stared at the stranger in front of him. Oh, he looked like a man, but Cas wasn’t fooled. He tried to look _within_ but his gaze was rebuffed. So while Cas didn’t know exactly what he was, there was a distinct air of otherworldliness about him that proved he wasn’t human.

He let his blade slip down into his hand. This was not a prince of hell, he was sure of that much. He would be able to tell, and even if he couldn’t, it made no sense for one to be so threatened by a mere seraph that it came looking for him.

No, he was dealing with something else. Something that had been waiting for him to leave Mrs Baker’s home.

At least it had waited, and not come in after him.

“What do you want?”

The stranger glanced at his blade and seemed almost amused.

“You won’t need that. We’re certainly not here to harm you.”

 _We’re_. 

Cas stepped back quickly, eyes scanning the area. He expected to see others approaching, surrounding him, but there was only the stranger, watching him.

“I asked you,” Cas insisted, ‘“what you want.”

The man sighed. “You.”

Cas slashed upwards with his blade, drawing a wound that stretched up from the man’s sternum to his shoulder. Enough to disable, not to kill, not yet. But a moment later the skin he’d exposed mottled and then the wound sealed itself up.

“That wasn’t necessary,” he chided. “You’ll not be harmed any more than is required.”

Cas drove his foot into the man’s knee, which put him off balance instead of sending him to the ground as he’d hoped, but let him deliver a punch which threw his opponent several feet backwards. 

There were creatures that could not be harmed by angel blades. Fortunately few, but he had no idea which one this particular being was. 

Resisting an angelic sword was one thing, though. Repelling angelic Grace was another. He raised his hand, summoned all his power and felt it mass against his palm.

Cas still didn’t know what it wanted with him, but he supposed he could live without finding out.

Before he could smite the man, something flickered at the edge of his vision. He became quickly aware of a presence slipping towards him.

It had been underneath his truck, and then it was almost on an eye level with him. Cas hesitated for one moment, so stunned at something he could never have expected.

It struck, faster than he could counter. He lashed out, knocking it aside, but blood was already trickling from his shoulder, and he could feel something burning into him.

The stranger was back on his feet. He moved forward quickly as Cas felt his strength start to drain out of him. He tried to bring his blade up but his arms felt impossibly heavy. 

The stranger wrapped an arm around his waist, kept him on his feet, and took his blade. 

“No need for this, now,” he said. “You might not believe it, but we’ll keep you safe.”

Something moved behind the man, looping itself up onto his shoulder. It nuzzled him, in an almost affectionate manner that still left Cas’s skin crawling.

He couldn’t help it when his head sank forward, coming to settle on the man’s chest as his legs gave way, only the stranger’s strength prevented him from collapsing to the ground.

“It’s alright, Castiel,” the man said. “I promise you that there is no need to fear. And at any rate, it won’t help.”

::

Sometimes, Dean wanted to take his foot and insert it in his mouth. Or better, take Sam’s foot, which was larger, and shove it in instead. Or as well as, because when the hell was he going to learn.

Every time they’d phoned Cas, it had gone straight to voicemail. So they’d left a message. And another. And sent a text. And then left another message.

They’d taken it in turns to do that, swapping off the driving. After the first hour brought no return call, Dean had known something was up.

Cas out of contact was never a good thing, so he’d figured if he couldn’t get ahold of the angel, he could try the demon he was with.

Crowley answered after the fifth attempt and managed to sound like they’d interrupted something both important and highly entertaining.

“Wish I could help, squirrel,” the demon had said. “Been a bit busy. Haven’t seen your angel since I saved his arse. Have you tried calling him?”

“Have I tried…” He bit down on his anger, Crowley was trying to needle him. Unfortunately, it was working. “Yeah, first thing I thought of, but thanks. You were supposed to be with him, you dick. The two of you looking for Kelly. You know, since there’s a prince of hell out there looking for her as well!”

‘As I said,” Crowley answered, and his tone made it clear he was using the communicating-with-idiots approach, “I’ve been busy. Maybe your little cloud hopper likes to drop everything and run when you snap your fingers, Dean, but I’m a different kettle of fish. There are priorities in life that don’t start with W.”

“I damn well wouldn’t have let him go if I’d known he’d be by himself!” Dean winced once he’d said it. It was true, in so far as he’d ever been able to stop Cas doing anything, but he knew how it sounded.

Sam cringed as Crowley’s sarcastic laughter sounded out from the loudspeaker. 

“Maybe you should have had him chipped then. Much as it’s been fun to chat, squirrel, I am, as I’m sure I’ve said, busy. Don’t worry too much about Castiel. I”m sure he’ll turn up eventually.”

“Crowley,” Dean started, but the demon had already hung up.

 _Fucker_ , he thought.

“What the hell do we do now?” He squeezed the steering wheel hard, cursing himself for not finding a way to persuade Cas to come on the hunt with them and then go find Kelly.

Cursing Garth for not manning - wolfing - up and taking on the damn hunt himself.

Cursing Kelly for running when all Cas wanted to do was make her safe.

And yeah, cursing Cas as well for not getting how things were without Dean having to say it.

_That’s right. Blame him again. Because maybe if you’d opened your damn mouth the couple of hundred chances you got, he’d be in the back seat right now instead of lost. Again._

Sam’s hand was on his shoulder, squeezing, and he nodded, throat too tight to speak.

“Ok,” Sam said. “Look, there’s a diner up there. Pull in; we’ll get coffee and lunch and I’ll use their wifi to check Cas’s phone and his credit card. We’ll find him, Dean. He’s probably just busy, you know?”

Maybe. Or maybe, and the possibility of it left him cold and hurt and scared, almost as much as the notion that Cas had gotten into trouble…. Maybe Cas was done with them. 

It was pretty clear he’d been expecting something from Dean that night, the following morning, and Dean had a feeling it was because he’d convinced Cas to sleep next to him. _So he could keep an eye on him._ Cas might not get a lot of human nuances, though he was improving, but there was no way the angel had missed that one.

So he’d waited. Through the night, into the morning, and then Dean thought he could now pinpoint the exact moment Cas realised he was waiting in vain.

That was why it had taken him an hour to get his shit together and go. He’d been stalling, and then woke up to the fact that it wasn’t going to happen.

So maybe Cas was fine. Maybe he was just no longer accepting calls from him. But from them? Sam had tried too, and Dean knew Cas would never shut him out even if they were once again at odds.

“I don’t think he’s busy,” he said, as he pulled into a space near the diner’s door.

Sam grabbed his laptop from the back seat, but the look he gave Dean proved that he really didn’t either.

::

Noonan knew their history well enough. He knew their numbers had once been spread across the world, but then the One God’s worshippers had come.

Those ones had almost been made extinct, but that seemed to have only made them come back stronger. They had survived and seen their enemies fall one by one. The cities where they had been persecuted and put to death became their strongholds.

And though it had taken centuries, almost every other faith had been eradicated, or driven underground.

In their case, literally.

He hadn’t been alive for that. When he’d been born, the catacombs had long since been constructed, both a sanctuary and a temple, and the place their kind had hoped they could forge their new beginnings.

A fortress in a sense, built around the centre of their existence.

Noonan wondered often - but privately - what the others thought would come of it.

As time had passed, they had spent more and more time on the surface, integrating themselves into the world, living what he supposed passed for normal lives.

Retreating here to worship.

All else in this place fell to him.

Despite that, they seemed to relish what was coming, and he couldn’t understand if they were eager for the destruction that would follow if their plans were successful or if they were just possessed by blind faith.

Not that it mattered, he supposed. There was little chance of them failing, now, as close as they were.

When the others succeeded in the capture, and returned with their prize, it would finally be enough.

The sleep, the years of peace, would be over and the wrecking of the world could begin.

Noonan had no love for the humans who had spoiled a world that they did not deserve, but he had no desire to see that world become a boneyard.

It was one thing to hear everyone around you talk of the glory that was to come, but quite another to realise that _glory_ would be steeped in blood and pain.

And he didn’t relish his role in it, not at all.

No, he’d prefer things to remain as they were. 

But again, that wasn’t an opinion he’d voice aloud. Given how close they were, even thinking it might be his undoing.

He heard the grinding of tyre on gravel and realised it was time.

One of the other faithful shifted as he approached and came to stand next to him.

Noonan glanced at him. “Put some clothes on,” he insisted. “We’re not heathens. Would you have him think that?”

The disciple tutted him but retreated. 

Noonan waited in the shadows, dreading what was to come.

::

“Easy,” someone said. “Be careful of his head. He’ll come fully around soon, we should hurry.”

Cas groaned as he felt hands on him. He pushed blindly, ineffectually, at them wherever he could. But for every one he managed to shove away, another took its place. Or maybe it was the same one taking hold of him somewhere else.

A face came into view above his own. This...this man was the same as the one who had approached him by his truck. There was the human mask but beneath it something Cas couldn't penetrate.

“Nausea is natural, even for seraphs,” the man said. “If you’re going to be sick, tell us and we’ll stop for a moment.”

Cas tried to speak, but his tongue felt leaden in his mouth. Thinking was hard, movement still drained him.

All because of a bite.

He raised his hand, ran his fingers over two deep puncture wounds. Something was thick and tacky around the holes, and he realised he could still feel whatever had gone into him working to keep him weak.

That...that and this place.

It was difficult, but Cas reached outward with his Grace. He got a sense of being underground. Of tunnels, passages, rooms. 

Of things moving in a darkness so complete that a human would have been helpless, which simply confirmed the people who had taken him were definitely not that.

But there was something else. This place...The air itself felt heavy. The walls he could glimpse between the bodies that held him seemed to sink closer as he watched.

The toxin from the bite alone wasn’t doing that, he didn’t think, so the place itself must also be having an effect.

They had been prepared for him, he was certain.

A hand caught his, and pulled it back from the wound. Blood was trickling from it afresh. 

“It’ll stop,” the man said. “And the feeling will ease. But you wouldn’t have come voluntarily, so I regret this had to be done.”

The others began to speak. Their voices were monotone, in a language Cas had never heard before and couldn’t understand.

It made no sense. As an angel he knew every tongue, every dialect, on Earth and in Hell. But just as he had never seen creatures like these before, he didn’t know their language.

The voices itched against his skin, and he gave a startled cry when they hefted him up above their heads.

“Gently,” the stranger said. “If you harm him enough to render him useless, you know what will happen.”

“What…”. Cas squeezed his eyes shut, tried to stir his Grace into action. He wasn’t healing; he should at least have recovered some strength by now. “Where am I? What do you want?”

He received no answer. Instead, the ones holding him began to descend carefully down a slope and then bore him further along one of the passages.

There was something ahead, Cas could sense it. A presence. There, but not easily touched.

Almost...stagnant.

Whatever it was, it provoked a sharp reaction in his true form. It recoiled, trying to pull back. As if he didn’t know what lay ahead, but on some subconscious level wanted to be far from it.

He felt his wings shudder and beat, pointless and broken though they were, trying to bear him away.

The movement still hurt, and he hadn’t the reserves to push down the pain, and so once again Cas slipped into the dark.

::

Mrs Baker was hostile the moment she opened the door. When she reluctantly let them in, and led them down the hall to her living room, Dean exchanged glances with his brother.

Unless they’d done her dirty in a previous life, he had no idea why they deserved the scowl that now seemed permanently impressed on her features.

“Apparently,” she said, once she had sat down (they were given no such invitation), “once you reach a certain age, your word is doubted for that sole reason.”

“Right,” Dean said, nonplussed. He had no idea how to navigate this minefield, and judging from the sharp atmosphere in the room, Mrs Baker was clearly expecting him to wrongfoot himself and reap the results. “Some people,” he added, hoping a little empathy might redeem the situation.

It didn’t. Mrs Baker saw through him as if he was made of glass.

“And _apparently_ not all FBI agents are as well mannered as Agent Beyoncé.”

There was a long, long moment where neither of them could really say anything. Up until then, they only had Crowley’s assurances that this woman was on the list of people he and Cas had planned to call on in the hunt for Kelly. And they only had that because Dean had summoned Crowley and refused to let him go until he stepped up.

What the hell was suddenly so urgent in, well, Hell, that he had bigger things to worry about than Lucifer’s offspring, Dean didn’t know, but Crowley had been too damn eager to get back.

He’d given up the information with only a few sarcastic cracks, and then vanished the moment Dean had broken the devil’s trap.

Yeah, that bastard was up to something, and if he had anything to do with Cas’s sudden radio silence, even if it was just leaving him to search alone, Dean was going to address that.

For now, though, they had confirmation that Crowley hadn’t lied and Cas had made it this far. Which fitted in with the information Sam had obtained on Cas’s credit card, that he’d booked a motel room not far from here. That had been their first stop but Cas really only owned the clothes he stood up in, so they were disappointed to find it empty of angel but not surprised it was also empty of belongings.

The maid who’d let them in was and, figuring Cas had left without checking out, went to tell the manager.

Unfortunately, Sam hadn’t been able to get a location on Cas’s phone so right now this lead was all they had.

“Agent Beyoncé,” Sam said. “He was six foot? Dark hair?”

Mrs Baker nodded, and her gaze softened. “And such beautiful blue eyes. So sad, though. I don’t think he was very happy.”

Dean looked away. No, probably not, but when they got him back he’d do his best to fix that. He was no miracle worker, but if that was what helping Cas took, he’d damn well learn how to perform them.

But first, they had to find him.

“Who doubted your word?” he asked. “About what?”

She hummed her disapproval, but something about them, maybe their desperation, earned them a second chance. She gestured at the sofa.

Once they were seated, she leaned forward as if about to impart some great secret.

“They don’t believe he healed me.”

If the crappy alias hadn’t been clue enough, and that was something else they’d have to fix, then that erased any doubt that Cas had been here recently. He’d been okay here too, or as okay as he could be.

“Not everybody is privy to Agent Beyonce’s gift,” Sam said. “I’m sorry if anyone disrespected you.”

The ice broke with an almost audible crack and five minutes later there was a tea service laid out and even a plate of cookies.

Dean took a cup, as did Sam, and they both nibbled at some cookies. He tried hard not to undo the opening Sam had gained them by letting his impatience show.

Mrs Baker interspersed her visit from Cas with some thinly veiled accusations that since she’d seen him she had reason to suspect her neighbours might be unpleasant people. Before Cas had come, there had been the issue with leaving their trash in front of her path. It made getting in and out difficult, since her balance outside of the house wasn’t as good as it had been a few months ago.

She hadn’t wanted to complain. Hadn’t wanted to make things worse.

But then they’d been responsible for Agent Beyonce’s truck being towed away, and she didn’t want him to be upset when he came back and found it was missing.

Dean put down the cup. “He didn’t leave in it?”

“Well, obviously not,” she said. “I waved goodbye to him, and he was just about to get in when that man approached him. And I wondered who he was because Agent Beyoncé didn’t seem at all happy to see him, but then my phone went. Some young man selling life insurance. Not much use to me, is it? And when I looked back he was gone, but his truck was still there. His coat, his keys also. Just not him.”

She got up, and went over to a dresser against the wall. A moment later she was back with the trench, folded neatly. Cas’s truck keys sat on top. 

She gave them to Dean.

“You told anybody this?”

Mrs Baker gave him a cold look. “Young man, I may be eighty but I am not addled in the head. When he didn’t come back after a few hours, I got the number for the FBI and I explained what happened, but they said they had no agents called Beyoncé and could I please not waste their time. I probably shouldn’t have mentioned the healing, or I suppose the trash problem, but I thought...while I was on…”

Dean wanted to shake her. They’d been sipping tea and eating cookies and she’d almost witnessed what he was sure had been Cas’s kidnapping.

“When the truck got towed?” he prompted.

Mrs Baker scowled at the wall, probably the one with the trash trespassing, angel reporting neighbours on the other side.

“I went out there,” she said, “and I told the tow truck driver that vehicle belonged to a federal agent, a special one, and he should leave it be. He laughed at me. Said _Feds_ didn’t drive…. Well, I won’t tell you what he said about Agent Beyonce’s vehicle, but it was unnecessary. Then he towed it anyway.”

There was nothing else they could learn from her. Cas had made it this far, and somebody had got the drop on him as soon as he’d left. He wasn’t as attached to the truck as he had been his Continental, but Dean knew Cas wouldn’t easily leave it behind.

In that respect, he’d definitely rubbed off on the angel. 

The trench on the other hand. That thing was practically sutured to the angel. No, if it had been lying there sans Cas, then Dean couldn’t help his thoughts racing in a bad direction.

And the stranger confronting Cas, then both of them being gone the next time Mrs Baker had looked, and Cas’s truck getting towed because he never came back for it.

They made their excuses, there wasn’t any time or reason to dally there, but she trailed them to the door and caught Dean’s arm before he could leave.

“He did heal me,” she insisted. “I know it. He is special, isn’t he?”

Sam had opened the door, and he hesitated, turning back to listen.

“Yeah,” Dean said. “Yeah, he is.”

“And now he’s in some kind of trouble.”

Dean couldn’t respond. He knew it, had known it since the first unanswered call and been absolutely certain once Crowley admitted he’d left Cas to it.

“I’ll pray for him,” she said. “And you. But I have a feeling you’ll find him and make sure he’s alright.”

Dean glanced helplessly at Sam. As always, his little brother came to the rescue, and nodded firmly at Mrs Baker.

“We will,” he promised her. “And we’ll call you so you know once he is.”

Dean was a little taken aback, but he saw the worry plain on the woman’s face. He took her number, saved it it his phone, and then finally they were able to leave.

“Dammit, Sam, he got snatched.” 

They walked down the path to the sidewalk. If Mrs Baker had been watching Cas walk to his truck (given the limited on street parking, Cas had probably done as they had, and put two wheels on the kerb), then Cas had been standing right where they were when he’d been jumped.

If only Mrs Baker had kept watching.

She might be dead, Dean realised, because maybe whoever had done this to Cas might not have wanted any witnesses.

“We could get his truck back,” Sam suggested.

“Later,” Dean said. He’d make sure Cas was reunited with it once they got him back safe. In the meantime, though…. “Check out the cameras.”

One was positioned at each end of the street. Dean watched them rotate, with a smooth speed that suggested automation, but they had to cover pretty much the entire area. Maybe minus a few blind spots.

“I’ll hack in,” Sam said. “Maybe we can see what happened, track where they took Cas.”

Dean climbed in the Impala, Sam following suit. They’d taken a motel room next to Cas’s, needing somewhere to change and stow their stuff while they tried to track their angel down. From there, Sam could try to hack the camera feed. 

_Wherever they took you, Cas_ , he prayed. _You hang on._

::

Cas had awoken slowly, and found himself with no idea of how much time had passed. They could have been carrying him for five minutes or five hours and it was more than disconcerting not to know.

But he had bigger concerns. He still ached, and he still felt split, cut off from his Grace. The tomb seemed to have settled over him like a physical weight, and the deeper he was borne into the catacombs, the worse it seemed to get.

That wasn’t all.

Soon after he awoke, he’d become aware of the voice. Still dazed, his first thought was that it had been prayer. He hadn’t surfaced enough to make out the words, but only two people would possibly have reason to pray to him.

Dean and Sam. Trying to contact him. Trying to find out where he was. Maybe making him aware they knew he was in trouble.

But with each step the voice had become clearer, and after a few moments Cas had realised it wasn’t the Winchesters.

It didn’t sound like them. 

Also, it just kept repeating his name over and over again.

_Castiel. Castiel. Castiel._

Dean and Sam didn’t call him that. The only time in recent years Dean had was when trying to drag him to the surface when Lucifer was possessing him.

No, it definitely wasn’t the brothers.

He groaned as the voice became stronger, overwhelming. It added to his discomfort. Mindful of the words of the man who’d greeted him inside the catacombs, Cas considered asking them to stop.

But he was already showing enough weakness. Asking for them to stop, put him down so he could vomit, was not an option.

He briefly entertained the idea of doing it anyway then making a run for it. But Cas was sure the moment his feet touched the ground his legs would buckle. He wouldn't make it more than a foot. 

Perhaps waiting was the better strategy, since he still didn’t know what these people wanted with him, and since at present there wasn’t much he could do about it.

Also the voice was still ringing out inside his head.

The passageway opened up, then. The roof arched upwards into a curved dome, and the room became a little lighter than the shadowed tunnels, thanks to torch topped pillars evenly space around the room, and sconces jutting from the walls.

Cas was set down, carefully, but the hands of his captors never left him. Whether they wanted to ensure he didn’t fall over, or to prevent against any possible escape attempt, he didn’t know.

One outcome was certainly more likely than the other.

But while he was on his feet, Cas intended to make use of it. He glanced around the chamber he'd been brought to.

It was a wide, high ceilinged room. Ten huge pillars supported the roof. To left and right, four smaller rooms led off from the main area. 

But Cas’s eyes were drawn to the centre of the chamber.

In the very middle lay a stone tomb. 

There was certainly no mistaking its purpose. The lid lay slanted against it, wide edge digging a furrow into the dirt. 

Even as that ramped up his uneasiness, it was not as bad as what else his attention came to focus on.

Forming what almost seemed a protective circle around the crypt, was a massive stone sculpture.

It was a serpent. 

Cas found it hard to look away once he’d seen it. The work and precision it must have taken to craft such a thing, in such a way…

The snake looped back on itself, tail also curving back towards its head, leaving an opening in its coils.

The eyes seemed to stare back at the angel, and he shifted uncomfortably.

This whole place felt wrong, and he wanted out, but for now the means to escape were beyond him.

He still couldn’t take his eyes off the statue, not until he heard the man say, “Put him inside.”

The grip around his arms tightened and he was urged forward.

Inside.

They were pushing him towards the sarcophagus.

Cas dug his heels in but was quickly overwhelmed. He twisted and struggled, but their grip was as solid as the stone tomb they were heading for.

But he had regained enough strength it seemed to be difficult; or perhaps, so close to their destination, his struggles had caused frustration. Two of them came around and grabbed his legs.

Cas kicked out brutally, and caught one in the stomach. The man hissed at him, and his eyes flashed, sickly yellow circles, before shifting back.

Encouraged, Cas fought harder. But, though it slowed them down, in the end they had him over the open maw of the tomb.

“Gently,” the stranger said. “Do it gently.”

His commands seemed entirely at odds with what they were about to do.

“Stop,” Cas yelled at them. “Don’t!”

It made no difference. Two of them grabbed the stone lid, holding it ready, and then the others put him in.

Cas grabbed at them, arms, clothing, anything to prevent them letting go once his back touched the cold stone base, but they seemed to just slip out of his grasp.

Flesh shifted and changed beneath his hands, then they had pulled free and away; the stone lid grating its way into place above his head.

He grabbed at it then. First the edge, but it soon passed out of his reach, and then his fingertips turned bloody as he dragged them against the underside of the lid. 

Hoping to find some purchase that simply wasn’t there.

He felt odd furrows in the stone, but not deep enough to grip.

“Wait,” he yelled again, but the lid was already almost in place and if they heard him, they ignored it.

With a rough sound, the tomb was sealed.

Cas lay panting in the darkness for a moment, trying to marshal his thoughts.

A moment later, he heard a deep grinding sound, stone on stone, but then it faded, and the only sound echoing around the coffin was his own breathing.

He had to focus, and so he forced his body to calm, his breathing to slow, his mind to concentrate.

If they wanted to kill him, there were easier ways and they’d had numerous opportunities.

Unless this was some bizarre ritual sacrifice.

But they knew he was an angel. They had to know that unpleasant as this experience would be, it wouldn’t kill him. He’d suffer, but he’d survive.

Unless that was the point.

He aimed a punch at the stone lid, but it barely even moved. He should have been able to shift it easily but, under the influence of this place, of the poison still running through him, it seemed to resist him.

Or perhaps they had set something in place to hold it down.

 _Castiel_.

That was not the voice he needed to hear then. Or the one he wanted to. He wanted to hear Sam, or Dean, asking him where he was. What he was up to. Why he wasn’t answering his phone. Telling him they were looking for him.

Even if by now, they weren’t aware he was in trouble, simply hearing their voices would have given him comfort, strength.

Sometimes they prayed to him by accident. He remembered when they had decided he deserved to have a birthday and had chosen a day and made arrangements. They’d been so genuinely excited, every single detail had been broadcast to him, but he had managed to feign sufficient surprise when they had produced a cake and some presents.

He wished he could hear them now, even if it was Dean telling him to _put his ears on._

_Cassstielll._

_Castiel._

“Shut up,” he moaned. The voice seemed to push its way into his head, stretch out and wrap itself around every thought or notion it found and try to squeeze it out.

Perhaps that was why he couldn’t hear the brothers. This thing was, as they would have said, _blocking all the channels._

_Castiel. Castiel. Castiel._

“Who are you?”

The frequency increased, until it was a never ending litany of his name. It became louder, and stronger, and he felt once again his energy draining away.

_CastielCastielCastielCastielCASTIEL_

Cas slammed his fists desperately against the stone lid and screamed. 

::

The problem with automated CCTV that had been introduced to a lot of cash strapped cities was that, while it certainly reduced overheads, it meant that the main purpose was deterrent.

Car thieves, muggers or worse would see the cameras, then go do whatever they were going to do somewhere else.

Well, Dean thought, it was a sort of deterrent. Unless you were the person unfortunate enough to be in the ‘somewhere else’ when you ran into the displaced piece of shit that was looking to do something to you.

Unless there was a crime nearby or some public outcry about the cost of such a system that wasn’t actually being used, camera footage was not likely to be reviewed immediately. Or maybe even at all.

Dean figured they were lucky this one was actually recording. Jody, during one night with a few too many beers that had lapsed into shop talk, had made them howl with laughter at her woeful tales about the town council, and mentioned they were looking to purchase just such a CCTV system.

They wouldn’t however increase her budget to hire someone to monitor it or pay overtime to any of her existing staff to review the footage.

She was fighting it but Dean remembered she hadn’t been hopeful.

But if somebody had been watching the footage he was right now, he knew it probably wouldn't have helped.

They watched Cas arriving. Despite the situation, Dean grinned as Cas bent down and quickly checked his hair in the side mirror.

“Well, we know who he gets that from,” he said, and nudged Sam who was seated in front of him, controlling the playback on the laptop.

“Sarcasm is what he got from you,” Sam retorted. “And an outdated taste in cars.”

Dean gave an offended huff that was only slightly put on. “Mad he didn’t GTA some piece of crap hybrid, Sammy?”

Sam shot him the finger, and then tapped the laptop screen. “What do you think?”

Some thirty minutes after Cas went in, an SUV pulled up behind his truck. Smoked out glass, a big beast. Dirt was sprayed up the sides, and over the tyres, and Dean immediately locked onto the men who got out.

Mrs Baker had reported only one man.

But more importantly, nobody who treated their car like that was anything _other than suspicious._

The men walked out of the immediate pan of the camera, fancy expensive system that still had blind spots, and then nothing happened.

Until Cas came out a while after that, and Dean was torn. It felt great to see him again, except he looked like he was carrying the weight of everything on his back. His trench coat was hung over one arm and he looked lost in thought as he returned to his truck.

“Dammit, Cas,” Dean muttered. “Wake up, take a damn look around you.” He could feel Sam’s frustration echoing their own. This had happened. Willing the angel to realise what was about to hit him like a wrecking ball was as pointless as screaming at football repeats on the TV.

It was already over.

One of the men approached Cas, seemingly catching him off guard as he was unlocking the truck.

They spoke briefly but even though he and Sam had managed to splice together the roving footage from both cameras into something that didn’t make their eyes water with shifting scenes, the angle was never right.

Dean focused, but though he could tell each of them was saying something, he couldn’t see their lips well enough to tell what.

He shrugged when Sam looked back at him, then tapped his shoulder to divert his attention back to the laptop.

“Something he said put Cas on edge,” Dean said.

Cas’s blade had slipped into his hand, and Dean watched him slice upwards with it, drawing a sharp line that should have put the guy out of commission on the spot.

It didn’t.

There was a weird fizzle on the camera, and Dean realised the guy had just healed himself.

Angel? Demon?

He didn’t know why, but it didn’t feel like it.

“Prince of Hell?” Sam said.

Dean straightened up and backed away from the Formica table Sam sat at. “No.”

Sam paused the footage. “It might not be, but it took the lance to kill Ramiel. If Dagon found out Cas was looking for Kelly, maybe she decided to get him first.”

Dean shook his head. He wouldn’t believe it and not just because if it were true then it explained why Cas hadn’t answered his messages. 

Because that would have been a fight he couldn’t have walked away from.

It also didn’t make sense.

“Why, though? She has to know we’re no threat right now. Even if we found Kelly first, there’s no way we could keep her. Not if Dagon decided to take her from us. Ramiel could have killed Cas with his bare hands. He used the staff because he was curious, and because he was a sadistic son of a bitch.”

Sam didn’t seem convinced, but he relented and resumed the playback. “I guess we’ll find out.”

 _Don’t be Dagon_ , Dean pleaded to himself. He wasn’t ready to see her kill Cas and then heave his body away with her. But why should she….

“There was no body,” Dean said. “If it was Dagon, she’d have killed him, and she’d have left his body there. What other use would she have for it?”

Sam didn’t answer. He paused the footage again, and tapped the screen.

“Did you see that?”

Dean leaned closer. His focus had been on the stranger that had made Cas feel threatened enough to draw his blade in public, in daylight.

Now he looked where Sam was pointing. 

There was something underneath the angel’s truck.

“What is that?”

Sam shook his head. “I don’t know. I just caught it moving though. I don’t think it’s a person.”

“Keep going.”

They watched Cas kick the guy’s knee, sending him off balance, and then follow up with a punch that could probably have shattered concrete. It did send the guy flying, but neither brother was watching him now.

They were watching what was slithering out from under the car, rearing up, just out of Cas’s peripheral vision. Or maybe he was distracted, because his hand was raised, and Dean could almost feel the Grace flooding through Cas as he got ready to smite whoever the guy was who’d approached him.

Then, at the last minute, he seemed to spot it.

The snake struck just as Cas did. Dean could barely follow it, the thing moved that fast. Cas lashed out with his blade, and Dean knew he got it. It fell heavily to the ground, and coiled around itself almost sullenly.

But Cas…. Cas’s hand came up to touch the wound and, as if the realisation of it was damage enough, he started to sag.

The stranger caught him, and Dean growled as he had to watch the guy holding Cas up, taking his angel blade.

Cas slumped against him, and the snake, fucking thing, raised itself up again and coiled itself around the man’s shoulders.

They watched him lift Cas carefully, and put him in the back seat of the SUV. The damn snake wriggled in there with him, and Dean felt a little sick at that.

“What the hell, Sammy?”

Sam grabbed up his notebook and pen and wrote down the plate number as the SUV drove off, leaving Cas’s truck behind, with his trench coat and his keys.

“I don’t know,” he said.

“No way a snake should be able to hurt Cas.”

“I don’t think that was an ordinary snake.”

“No shit. What the actual fuck!” There wasn’t even anything in their dad’s book on something like this; snakes whose venom was powerful enough to stun a seraph. 

He was also pretty sure Sam would have come running up like a geeky puppy if he’d found anything like it in the Letters’ archives. He had every other time.

“I'm ringing Crowley.” That piece of shit had caused this. If he’d been with Cas, maybe Cas would be with them now and not who knew were.

“Dean, you really think he’s going to turn up and help?”

Good point. Dean put his phone away, and kicked the rug in the kitchen across the room.

After they left, the maid was going to have a fit when she saw the devil’s trap. Dean imagined stories of Satan worshipping FBI agents showing up in the Weekly World News.

He also didn’t give a shit. 

He grabbed the can of spray paint from his duffel and found the spot where he’d broken the line to free Crowley last time and dropped down to redo it.

“He won’t help us,” Sam insisted.

“He might know what that thing was.”

“I think it’s pretty clear what it was.”

“Then how the hell it took Cas down. Look, Crowley hears everything. If somebody’s put a line out on Cas, he’ll know. Might even have been him for all we know.”

Sam snagged the can of paint out of his hand. Dean came onto his feet angrily and tried to snatch it back, but Sam threw it onto the bed.

“Right. Because he risks his life and surrenders a powerful weapon to save Cas and then has him kidnapped two minutes later?”

“Then you tell me!” Dean yelled. “Fuck, Sam, I…”

He sank down onto the bed. This wasn’t helping. None of this was Sam’s fault, but he couldn't keep calm about it like his brother could.

Keeping his family safe was his responsibility. Sam, Cas, and yeah, his mom. 

Mary, he couldn’t do anything about. She’d made her position very clear, that their relationship would be on her terms. She was so not what he’d remembered, and okay maybe that wasn’t her fault, but she could at least have made a damn effort to remember she wasn’t the only one knocked for six by her return.

He got that she had to find a way to settle back into things, but she could have done it at home.

Without producing mystery hunts that almost killed Cas and broke Dean in two.

But Sam and Cas…. Why was it that, no matter how hard he tried, the world fought back just as much.

Or they did. Cas…. He should have kept Cas with him. Put him off going to hunt for Kelly.

What the hell were either of them thinking that they thought Crowley would be suitable back up on anything?

Sam crouched down in front of him. He rested his hands on Dean’s forearms, leaned in until his forehead touched Dean’s.

“Every time,” he said. “Every time we get him back. He knows we’ll come for him, Dean.”

Dean wondered. Cas had waited a whole night, and into the next morning for Dean to grow a pair and instead Dean had let him walk out of the door.

Maybe Cas had taken something else from that. 

Maybe wherever he was right now, he didn’t think he was worth saving. At least to them.

“How the hell are we going to find him, Sam?”

The knock at the door was sudden. They both jumped, and Sam turned towards it, straightening up, hand going for his gun.

Dean followed suit, pushing aside the numbness settling into him. If this was some dick monster looking for trouble it had picked the right room and the right time. 

He needed something to vent on.

They were barely a foot towards the door when it burst open, and someone they hadn’t expected to ever see again pranced in as if making a grand entrance.

They both kept their guns on him, because it was impossible. It couldn’t be him.

But maybe nobody told Gabriel that, because he grinned mischievously at them.

“So. Miss me?”

::

As soon as the seraph was entombed, Noonan bowed hastily. The disciples followed suit, then tailed him as he retreated. For this part, privacy was best.

For their safety. 

Their survival.

A deep grinding sound had him turning in panic. It was too soon.

But he settled, briefly, when he saw that the serpent’s tail had twisted back and up, until it was rested heavily on the lid of the tomb.

“Come on,’ he told the disciples. 

They followed him, meekly, and seemed relieved at having completed their mission.

Noonan wondered how relieved they’d be if they knew what came next. But then they all had a role to play. Theirs wasn't quite finished.

He led them to the left, down another twisting passage, and then up to a set of heavy stone doors. Opening them, he ushered the disciples inside.

They gathered in the middle of the room, and stood, waiting on him telling them what to do. Or perhaps awaiting the rapture they had been promised.

It’d be there soon enough.

If any of them noticed the wide hole in the ceiling, none commented but Noonan knew it unlikely.

They were focused on only one thing.

“Remain here until you’re needed. It probably won’t be long.”

He left, closing the doors over behind him. There was a barely noticeable indentation near each of the hinges, and Noonan pressed each one in turn.

He heard the raw sound of stone fusing with stone, and waited to see if it would draw any reaction from within.

There was nothing. Not at first, and then he heard them start to chant again.

The words sent a chill through him.

They were chanting it into the world.

Well, their prayers would soon be answered, he thought, as he retreated to his own chamber to wait. Though he wondered if their fanaticism would keep them grateful through it or if they’d wake before the end and realise what they, and he, had helped bring about.

::

Gabriel rolled his eyes, but submitted to their tests with a mix of mirth and thinly-veiled patience.

They did it all - demon knife, silver blade, salt, borax (that last one was unlikely but they never took anything for granted). In the end Gabriel performed a little sleight of hand (Dean drew his gun again when Sam realised he was sprouting actual antlers from his head until they disappeared again), and then sat down on one of the chairs.

It wobbled, one leg being a little bent and so shorter than the others.

“Still with the classy digs,” the archangel said.

“Let’s can the smart ass act,” Dean spat at him. “You’re dead.”

“Well, I’m looking good for it, though, wouldn’t you say?”

“No.”

Sam elbowed him. “Dean. What do you want, Gabriel?”

Gabriel shrugged, and Dean could see he wanted them to coax it out of him. Well, he had no time for this shit. Archangel or not, he was about to get his ass kicked.

He grabbed Gabriel by the shirt front and hauled him up to his feet. “Thanks for dropping by. Would have been nice to see you when we were trying to save the world, or when Cas was in trouble, but we managed. Bye.”

He hauled the shorter man towards the door, beneath his temper a little surprised that Gabriel was allowing it, but Sam stopped him.

“Dean, we should tell him.”

Dean stopped, and glanced back at Sam. “Oh, so he can do fuck all again?”

Now, Gabriel seemed angry. He shoved Dean back, eyes flashing. “Hey, I died for you jerks.”

Dean gave him a look. “You look pretty alive to me.” 

“You didn’t know that, and neither did Lucifer. It’s the thought that counts. Anyway I need to speak to my little brother. I doubt he’s got any smarter so I figure he’s still trailing after you two.”

Sam stepped forward. “He’s missing, Gabriel.”

The archangel scoffed. “Look, I’m not asking for custody or anything. Just visitation rights. Come on! I need to pass a message upstairs and I figure Cassie can pass it on for me.”

“Missing, asshole,” Dean said. “As in jumped by some freaky snake thing and then kidnapped.”

Gabriel was on him in two steps, hoisting him up by the jacket.

“I want to know what you know,” he said. “And if you two did anything to get him into this, I’m going to forget how fond I am of you.”

Dean glared down at him, and slapped at his hand, but he didn’t get down until Sam distracted Gabriel by promising to show him.

The archangel watched the footage of Cas’s abduction and then turned away.

“Stupid fledgling,” he snapped. “Figures those dickbags would get on his trail.”

“Wait, what?” Dean grabbed Gabriel’s arm and yanked him around. “You know what this is about? Why the hell some guy and his pet snake kidnapped him?”

“That guy and his pet snake were probably disciples,” Gabriel said. “Look, I know you guys think you rule the world, and all, and that we suck in general…”

“That last bit’s true,” Dean said.

Gabriel ignored him, and his interruption. “But, it wasn’t always just us fucking things up. A long time ago, there were others. Not as powerful as Dad, but they were enough of a threat that we had to deal with them.”

“Snakes? A cult that worships snakes?” Sam seemed fascinated and dubious at the same time. “How much of a threat to Heaven could they have been?”

Gabriel seemed on the edge of losing his patience with them. “No. Damn, you two just don’t get any smarter, do you? Did you actually watch that?” He jerked his thumb at the laptop. “They _are _snakes. They can shift from human to serpent and back, whenever they damn well feel like it.”__

__Dean couldn’t quite get his head around a bunch of weresnakes getting a bunch of angel panties in such a twist that they went to war over it. But Gabriel had sought them out to find Cas over this. Had broken his little secret after letting all three of them think he was dead for years._ _

__“You wanted Cas to warn the assholes upstairs.”_ _

__Gabriel gave him a slow clap. “And there was light. I mean, it’s shining through your ears, but hey. Improvement.”_ _

__“Don’t you ever get sick of it?” Dean asked. “Hiding behind your fake ass trickster shtick? And now Cas? You’re a freaking coward.”_ _

__He knew he was in danger of getting his ass smote but he didn’t care anymore. The only time Cas seemed to hear from his so called family was when they wanted something or they wanted to drag him through the dirt._ _

__Gabriel might act like he was better than the rest of them, but as far as Dean was concerned, there were more snakes crawling around than just the ones that had the archangel so panicked._ _

__But Gabriel didn’t argue with him, and that told Dean he’d maybe struck a sore spot, and just maybe the situation was serious enough that Gabriel wasn’t going to argue with him._ _

__“They’re bad,” Gabriel said, quietly. “But it’s what they worship that’s worse. We hit it with everything we had last time. But Dad was gone by then, so we knew we didn’t have what it took to kill it.”_ _

__Sam had his phone out. He was recording this, face rapt. “What do they worship, Gabriel? What happened?’_ _

__“Look, it feeds on angels.”_ _

__For two bucks, Dean would have shot him in the face. Holy shit, Cas was with them, with _something_ that ate angels. He yanked his duffel from under the bed, shoved his stuff into it, started for the door…_ _

__Gabriel was in his way. He grabbed the bag from him and threw it onto the bed. One shove sent Dean thumping down next to it._ _

__“Grace, moron,” Gabriel said. “Grace. That’s why we went after it so hard. They were on us like it was open season for a while, so we fought back, and we got most of the disciples. But it…. It’s a god, believe it or not. We couldn’t kill it, so we did the only thing we could.”_ _

__“Flapped your wings at it?” Dean glared back at Sam when his little brother gave him a dirty look._ _

__Gabriel chuckled, but there was no humour there. “We threw a heavenly nuke at it. Concentrated Grace. Look, too much of a good thing, you know? And it never could curb its appetite. So it tried to swallow the Grace down, and got petrified for its trouble. Best we could come up with, but we figured it’d hold until Dad came back and then he could finish it off.”_ _

__Problem was, when Chuck had returned, he’d had his plate full. Dean wondered if he had any idea what his kids had been up to in the meantime, then decided he probably had._ _

__But like most of the rest of it, he hadn’t really given a shit._ _

__“What is it, Gabriel?” Dean asked. “C’mon.”_ _

__Gabriel looked at him, and Dean realised he’d seen Gabriel pissed, frustrated, stubborn and ashamed._ _

__He’d never seen him afraid._ _

__“What do you think a bunch of weresnakes worship, Dean? I promise you, it’s not something small, cute and fluffy.”_ _

__::_ _

__Gabriel sat up front, and Dean wasn’t happy about it, but it was easier to take direction from somebody sitting next to him than navigating from the back seat._ _

__“And you’re actually sure about this?”_ _

__Gabriel groaned and covered his face with his hands. “For like the millionth time, yes. I followed them after they left. They’ve been busy since we put them down.”_ _

__Sam was typing away on his laptop. “There’s nothing in the reports on that area to suggest a massive underground temple, Gabriel.”_ _

__“Let me tell you how it probably went,” Gabriel said. “These guys, when they’re not slithering about on their bellies, they look like you and me. They’re basically shifters. Except the big one of course. It’s a serpent all the time. Anyway, the disciples, they’ll live human lives mostly. Get education, get jobs. Learn skills that can help the _family_. And so here we are. It’s probably getting ready to make a move.”_ _

__Dean shot around so fast the car swerved. “You said it was turned to stone!”_ _

__Gabriel glanced at his watch. “It was. Though by now it might be a bit more active. But this is a powerful god, Dean, and with Dad not being on the throne…. Well, like I said, we didn’t manage the KO. They’ve probably been feeding it any lone angel they can find, but other than me and Cas, most everybody else moves with their Garrison or stays upstairs.”_ _

__Dean glanced at Sam, saw the same guilt there. If they hadn’t let Cas go…. Those things were probably tracking him, waiting until he was alone so they could grab him and serve him up to their…._ _

__Their giant snake boss. He still couldn’t believe it, even though he didn’t see why Gabriel would lie._ _

__Gabriel seemed to pick up on their mood._ _

__“Little bro’ll be fine,” he promised him. “He’s important. They’ll need him around for food.”_ _

__“That’s not fine,” Dean protested. “Dammit, Gabriel, he’s a mess as is. This…. This might just do it, you know.”_ _

__Gabriel’s face darkened. He was silent for a moment. “I heard some things through the grapevine,” he said. “Tuned most out of it, didn’t want to pick up anything I didn’t want to hear. Didn't want them realising I was still around. So later, when we get him back, you three are going to tell me everything. Though I have a feeling I’m not going to like it.”_ _

___I have a feeling you’ll hate it, Dean thought. _And probably want to kill Sam and me and then just grab Cas and run with him.__ _ _

___Something else came to him then, and he felt his stomach flop at the notion. Cas, despite everything, still missed the company of other angels. Dean had seen his reaction to meeting his old garrison comrades, even if that had turned into a disaster._ _ _

___And though Cas never really mentioned Gabriel they had now and again, and each time Cas had gone silent or made his excuses about something to do elsewhere in the bunker and left._ _ _

___He knew Cas missed Gabriel. There was probably still some bad blood to be cleared there, but just like with him and Sam, the bond didn’t break so easily._ _ _

___Maybe if Gabriel asked Cas to leave with him, Cas would be out the door before Dean could blink._ _ _

___He wondered if offering Gabriel to stay would change Cas’s mind. Sure it wasn’t ideal, as the guy was a major ass, but if it was a choice between sharing with Gabriel or losing Cas it didn’t need much thought._ _ _

___But first they had to save Cas, and Dean was damned if he was going to let some big fucking snake snack on his…._ _ _

___On _his_ angel._ _ _

___“So,” he said. “I guess we need a plan.”_ _ _

___::_ _ _

___When the voice stopped, it was so suddenly that it took Cas a moment to note its absence. He was curled in on himself then, imagining his wings were shielded around him._ _ _

___It was small comfort, and did nothing to lessen the feeling of having his head invaded by the strange voice and its presence._ _ _

___But then another sound came. Something was creaking loudly outside the coffin. It rasped against the sides of the stone, and Castiel straightened out, ending up on his stomach as he tried to listen._ _ _

___Something was happening, but the sounds alone gave no call as to what._ _ _

___Then the entire coffin shuddered, rocking him with it. He ended up against the far side, a little stunned._ _ _

___There was silence again, briefly, and Cas shifted so he could press an ear to the side of his prison. He heard nothing at first, and then an odd sound, like something moving heavily across the floor of the chamber. Shifting through the dirt._ _ _

___Away from him._ _ _

___Puzzled he kept his position, though wary in case the sarcophagus was shaken again. But that didn’t happen. Cas strained to hear anything at all, and then, suddenly, he heard screams._ _ _

___He jerked back. They were loud, frantic, reaching him easily through the walls of the coffin._ _ _

___Cas got onto his knees and put his back to the lid. He strained, trying to push upwards. He had no idea what was going on out there, and even less notion if he’d be able to help but he couldn’t just lie there while people were in trouble._ _ _

___Perhaps these creatures had taken others prisoner._ _ _

___He panicked when he realised those sounds might be coming from Dean and Sam. But there were more than two voices, he was sure of it, and then they dwindled down until the last was cut off sharply._ _ _

___Still, Cas struggled, but the lid was not going to budge. He slumped down, straightened out again, tried to think._ _ _

___Their plan couldn’t be to simply leave him in here. But he still didn’t know what they wanted him for. So perhaps that was it._ _ _

___To leave him trapped in this dark narrow prison._ _ _

___The why of it wouldn’t matter. Cas knew that while he might physically survive such a thing, in other ways he would not._ _ _

___So here he would not stay. There had to be a way out and he would -_ _ _

___The lid was snatched away suddenly, the light that burst in almost blinding. Cas blinked through it, saw the lid go flying away and heard it land heavily nearby._ _ _

___He lay still for a moment, gathering himself before sitting up._ _ _

___The chamber seemed empty, but Cas didn’t trust his senses. Whatever was going on here, there was something powerful at work._ _ _

___He got up carefully, alarmed to find his body stiff. His fingertips were no longer bleeding, but they still looked abraded. He was less angel, more human here it seemed. As if he’d been drained rather than had his Grace inhibited._ _ _

___That he was sure had been the start of it but now he actually felt as if he’d been…_ _ _

___...Fed from somehow._ _ _

___He climbed out of the coffin, stumbling over the edge, and came to land on his hands and knees._ _ _

___It took him a moment to settle, to be able to open his eyes and not have the room spinning around him._ _ _

___From there, the centre of the chamber, he could see most of the layout. There were eight rooms, four to each side. Cas could see some were furnished: a bed, a library of sorts, a desk._ _ _

___As if someone had tried to make this place a home, almost._ _ _

___The closest room to him, however, held only one thing of note: set dead centre was a massive hole. He wished he had the strength to get closer, to see where it led if anywhere. But standing seemed beyond him. Much as he wanted to know if it was a way out. Much as he wanted to know who had been screaming._ _ _

___And, though he had a sickening certainty, why they had stopped._ _ _

___Still, the tunnels behind him would lead him back to the surface, though he doubted they’d be unguarded._ _ _

___They had gone to a lot of trouble to get him here._ _ _

___Despite that, no one had come in to check on him. No one seemed alerted to his sudden freedom, although someone here had to be responsible._ _ _

___Other than his release, there was also something odd, something missing from the chamber._ _ _

___Cas sat back on his heels. He still felt deadened here, and now a little feverish. That was typically a symptom of problems with his Grace, something he was unfortunately familiar with. It just proved he was right about someone or something here affecting him._ _ _

___He forced himself to focus, and then he realised._ _ _

___The giant stone serpent was gone._ _ _

___Movement, an odd sound, drew Castiel’s gaze above him._ _ _

___There in the gloom, two large yellow eyes peered back down at him._ _ _

___No. Not gone. Just now above him, coiled around a couple of the pillars._ _ _

___Cas pushed himself to his feet, willing his trembling muscles not to fail him. He backed away as it started to descend, its massive body lowering down, muscles stretching._ _ _

___He bumped into someone behind him, turning sharply._ _ _

___It was the stranger. He glanced from Cas to the creature above them, and nodded as if he’d received some silent order._ _ _

___“I suppose it is time for introductions.”_ _ _

___The voice returned, like a hot blade rammed through his skull._ _ _

____Castiel. Castiel. Castielllllll._ _ _ _

___Castiel groaned as the room begin to spin and he was sent once more to his knees._ _ _

___::_ _ _

___The entrance to the catacombs looked like a solitary crypt standing sadly in front of them._ _ _

___Instinct and experience told Dean as soon as they set foot in there, they’d be in the thick of it. But the main thing he had trouble getting his head around was that, beneath that small structure (which to be honest didn’t look big enough to turn around in never mind be an entrance of some sort), was a massive underground complex._ _ _

___“You actually went in there.”_ _ _

___Gabriel was rifling through the Impala’s trunk. He glanced up over the trunk lid. “I went in far enough. Trust me, if I’d known they had a hard on for my brother I’d have done more than that. But now he’s in there, it kind of limits our options. Hey, is this a grenade launcher?”_ _ _

___Dean ignored the look Sam gave him and slapped Gabriel’s nosy hands away from their stuff. “Yes. It’s a long story.”_ _ _

___“I’ll bet. Grab it. Trust me, you’re probably gonna need it. And those flashlights.”_ _ _

___Dean picked a spare duffel from among their kit, and started filling it. He grabbed the two flashlights and tossed one to Sam._ _ _

___“Guns,” he said. “Shotguns?”_ _ _

___Gabriel shrugged. “You are literally going into a nest of vipers. Constrictors. Every breed of snake on this planet, you’re going to find crawling around in there. They’re not exactly going to be happy to see us. But you’ll probably have better luck with these.”_ _ _

___As Dean shoved a couple of shotguns into the bag, Gabriel grabbed the two machetes strapped to the underside of the fake lid that hid their gear from anybody prying in the trunk._ _ _

___He offered one to each of them._ _ _

___Dean eyed the weapons. “What about you?”_ _ _

___Gabriel drew his angel blade and waggled it at him._ _ _

___“That didn’t help Cas,” Sam pointed out. He glanced at the machetes Gabriel had passed them, doubt in his eyes._ _ _

___“Cas has a seraph’s blade. This one’s a little more...juiced. And trust me, chopping off their heads’ll work just fine. Look guys, when we get in there, that place is going to be heaving with snakes. The big one waking up? None of them are going to miss this. You better keep your eyes open.”_ _ _

___“You sure it will be up and slithering around?” Dean asked. “Sounds like they’ve been lifting angels every chance they got to feed it.”_ _ _

___Gabriel gave the crypt a dark look. “Trust me. I can feel it. It was near the surface when I followed those two bastards here. It’s up and around by now.”_ _ _

___Sam stared thoughtfully at him. “When this is over, I really want to know more about it. His disciples.”_ _ _

___Gabriel shrugged. “Pretty sure it’ll take a miracle to get us in and out of there. But if we make it, I guess.”_ _ _

___He started towards the crypt._ _ _

___“Gabriel,” Sam called after him. “How are we going to kill it?”_ _ _

___Gabriel didn’t slow down. “I'll think of something.”_ _ _

___Sam glanced back at Dean, gave a shrug and followed._ _ _

___Dean shouldered his backpack. No plan, huh. Taking a grenade launcher into an underground temple might not be the smartest idea, but then there was a giant snake down there that had Cas and was planning to keep him around like a Grace bank._ _ _

___He couldn’t imagine what was going through the angel’s head. Was he even conscious yet? Was he still suffering from the bite that had knocked him out cold?_ _ _

___Would he be helpless in there, awake and aware and terrified?_ _ _

___Would he be waiting on them to come for him?_ _ _

___He couldn’t be sure Cas could hear his prayers, but Dean tried anyway._ _ _

____We’re here, Cas. Just you hold on._ _ _ _

___::_ _ _

___The snake seemed sluggish as it came to rest on the ground in front of him, Cas noted. It settled next to the stranger, and even though the pain in his head subsided, Cas found he still lacked the strength to stand._ _ _

___He was recovering slowly, but for now it would probably be best to let them think him incapacitated. They might become careless, though what he could do against a creature of such size he had no idea._ _ _

___The stranger introduced himself as Noonan, an acolyte. The snake, a god, if he was to be believed, was called Nathair._ _ _

___Cas let his tongue get the better of him, and told him he had never heard of this _god.__ _ _

____Neither of them seemed offended, and Cas wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or a bad._ _ _ _

____“Why would you?” Noonan said. “Heaven tried to eradicate us long before either your or I were even alive. They almost succeeded. They tried to murder our god. And your human followers systematically destroyed every temple or ours and put any of our faithful to death._ _ _ _

____“Small wonder we have no place in the history books, on Heaven or Earth. And yet, here you are.”_ _ _ _

____Castiel glanced between them. “But I still don’t know why I am.”_ _ _ _

____Noonan glanced at Nathair. Something seemed to pass between them. Noonan closed his eyes, and when he opened them they were the same shape and colour as the serpent’s._ _ _ _

____“This way I can speak to you directly,” Noonan said. His voice had a sibilance to it. “Without causing you pain.”_ _ _ _

____Cas almost laughed. “One of your kind attacked me. I was brought here against my will and interred alive. And you are worried about my pain.”_ _ _ _

____“You were bitten by a disciple, Castiel. Not one of my kind. Do you count the humans among the Heavenly throng? And it was necessary. If I had asked, you would never have agreed.”_ _ _ _

____“To what?”_ _ _ _

____Noonan came to crouch down in front of him._ _ _ _

____“Don’t you wonder why you’ve felt so weak since you came here? Drained? I had to feed more deeply than I intended, to return to normal, but your strength will return to you, Castiel._ _ _ _

____“There are wards in place here which will keep it in check, though, but your discomfort going forward will be minimal. Food alone can’t sustain me, little seraph.”_ _ _ _

____And now it made sense. The bite to render him helpless. But since they’d carried him into this place, the rest of it had been down to the creature in front of him._ _ _ _

____Sealing him in the sarcophagus had just been to make it easier for Nathair to take what he needed. Something else stealing his Grace, trying to render him helpless, and then using his power for …. what?_ _ _ _

____“And what then? You keep me here, feeding when you must, and for what purpose?”_ _ _ _

____Noonan stood. He took hold of Cas’s arms and set him on his feet. Held on, perhaps to keep him there, and perhaps because he sensed Cas wasn’t as weak as he seemed._ _ _ _

____“In a way,” Nathair said, “I am the angels’ only natural predator. But Heaven could not accept the order of things, and disrupted the balance. In a way, you’re helping redress things. Make reparations. For so long as you last, anyway.”_ _ _ _

____Cas tried to pull back but Noonan’s grip was like steel around his arms. He could play along for now. Let them think he was too weak to oppose their plans._ _ _ _

____But even the thought of it, of surrendering his Grace to another creature, was abhorrent._ _ _ _

____“No,” he said. “I won’t let you. I won’t submit.”_ _ _ _

____Noonan sighed. He blinked and his eyes returned to normal. There was a moment where he seemed lost, but his grip never wavered. He glanced back at Nathair._ _ _ _

____The giant snake had reared up, its face malevolent as it glared down at him._ _ _ _

_____Poor little seraph_ it said, and Cas felt pain dagger its way through his head. Worse this time because this time, he realised, it was intended. _I didn’t actually ask.__ _ _ _

____::_ _ _ _

____The moment they left the crypt and hit the start of the passage, the light seemed to abandon them._ _ _ _

____They turned on their torches. Gabriel walked in front, blade ready, seemingly untroubled by the dark._ _ _ _

____“Watch where you walk,” he told the brothers. “Watch the walls. Watch everything.”_ _ _ _

____“Why do I feel like we’re walking into _Raiders_?” Dean asked. He thought he saw movement from the left, but when he cast the flashlight in that direction, there was nothing but stone. “This place is like a nightmare.”_ _ _ _

____Sam scuffed his feet at something, and Dean realised he was probably judging the slope they were on, and maybe his Raiders comment has his little brother anticipating their own remake._ _ _ _

____“Gabriel,” Dean said. “You sure you can see well enough in here?” If the passages were uneven, or maybe even booby trapped, he didn’t want them relying alone on the torches he and Sam carried. That was besides the pest problem the archangel had promised they’d encounter._ _ _ _

____Gabriel spun around, stretching out his arms in panic. “Who said that?”_ _ _ _

____For two bucks, Dean would have punched him in the face but it wasn’t worth the time or energy wasted. Or the broken knuckles._ _ _ _

____“Very. Fucking. Funny.”_ _ _ _

____Gabriel turned away again. “You two need to learn to trust me. I want my brother back. And I want to finish the job this time.”_ _ _ _

____They lapsed into silence then. Dean tried to keep his focus, but even with the distraction of freaking out over Cas (who the hell knew what was happening to him?), this was taking too long. The entire place seemed to be moving._ _ _ _

____He hoped it was some kind of optical illusion. Whenever he shone his torch in that direction, it stopped. Wall was still wall, not some freakish were-snake about to lash out at him._ _ _ _

____“Dean,” Sam whispered._ _ _ _

____“Yeah?”_ _ _ _

____“Can you stop a minute?”_ _ _ _

____Dean reached forward and tapped Gabriel on the shoulder. “Hold up.”_ _ _ _

____He ignored the huff of annoyance, and turned around to face his brother. He kept his torch dipped. “You ok?”_ _ _ _

____“I don’t think so.”_ _ _ _

____Something cold settled in Dean then. He brought his torch up slowly, suddenly sure that moving fast would be a big mistake._ _ _ _

____Something cast a shadow over Sam._ _ _ _

____Dean followed it cautiously._ _ _ _

____He was no snake expert, but it had to be a good metre and a half in length. The body was whip thin, the colours hard to determine with the flashlight, but he thought maybe yellow with a smattering of brown. It was dangling down next to Sam, tongue flickering in the air. Sam had to have felt its movement, or caught a glimpse and stopped._ _ _ _

____If he hadn’t…._ _ _ _

____Holy shit, it was dangling from the roof._ _ _ _

____He really didn’t want to look up, but he did anyway. Tilting his head back slowly, flashlight following._ _ _ _

____The ceiling was a writhing mess, and Dean dropped the light back to Sam as fast as he could._ _ _ _

____“Let me guess. Not the floor,” Sam said._ _ _ _

____The snake hovering by him started to tense. Dean didn’t know if snakes had expressions, but this one looked pissed. He had to be fast, and he had to be precise._ _ _ _

____He hefted the machete in his hand. This wasn’t any different from taking down a vamp. Except it was. Shit, it really was. He looked at Sam, Sam looked at him, and he was ready and..._ _ _ _

____Dean swung with one hand, Sam leaned back out of range, and the snake moved just a fraction too slow._ _ _ _

____Its head went flying, and the body twisted and flailed for a moment before dropping with a dull thud._ _ _ _

____Dean grabbed at Sam, trying to hold onto the flashlight and catch hold of his brother’s jacket at the same time, and yanked him forward._ _ _ _

____“Move! Gabriel, they’re-”_ _ _ _

____Sam’s flashlight was straight ahead, showing a clear stretch of passageway before it twisted off to the right._ _ _ _

____Gabriel was gone._ _ _ _

____Something lashed out at Dean. He ducked aside just in time, then pushed Sam ahead._ _ _ _

____“Just go, Sam! GO!”_ _ _ _

____So much for _trust me.__ _ _ _

____::_ _ _ _

____Noonan didn’t know why Nathair seemed surprised that Castiel had declined its gracious offer to be a food source for the rest of his days._ _ _ _

____He’d been taught their god was omnipotent, but apparently it hadn’t seen that one coming. It didn’t matter. As Nathair had said, it wasn’t a request._ _ _ _

____As Noonan spun the angel around, and started pushing him back towards the coffin, he wondered if at some point it was worth trying again._ _ _ _

____Certainly it was easier on all concerned if the seraph would be willing. At some point, Nathair’s return would take it out of here._ _ _ _

____Transporting a stone coffin with an angel inside would be tricky. A co-operative angel who would follow when bidden would be less so._ _ _ _

____Perhaps after another period inside his tomb, Castiel would be more open to persuasion. Noonan himself had kitted out the chamber. He didn’t know the tastes of angels, but all their research on Castiel had suggested he was as much human as Angel these days._ _ _ _

____So he had done as much as he could to fill the chamber with things to pass the angel’s time. He’d been prepared to adjust things to Castiel’s preferences._ _ _ _

____He hadn’t expected any of it to help, but he knew his duty and he’d duly fulfilled it._ _ _ _

____Now he had to return Castiel to his prison._ _ _ _

____“You should stop fighting,” he said. “There's really no point.”_ _ _ _

____“You know what will happen,” Castiel protested. “If he leaves here!”_ _ _ _

____Yes, Noonan did. Even before Nathair had spoken through him, he’d known. Then he’d seen it through Nathair’s eyes. But he could do no more to stop it than the seraph could. When resistance was pointless, there was no point to resistance._ _ _ _

____“It’s inevitable,” he said. “But you could be treated well if you would just co-operate. Why suffer when you don't have to?”_ _ _ _

____He locked his arms around the angel and heaved him up. Legs off the floor, Castiel's struggles didn't lessen but they became ineffectual; Noonan was stronger than a fettered seraph._ _ _ _

____They were only feet from the coffin. Noonan could sense Nathair watching, feel its hunger. The angel was lucky, even if he didn't seem to appreciate it, that his kind were physically unpalatable to the serpent._ _ _ _

____Perhaps he would have preferred a quick death to a slow decline, but it wasn’t as though either of them had any choice._ _ _ _

____As they reached the coffin, Castiel braced his feet against the edge, sharply stopping their progress and causing Noonan to grunt at the impact._ _ _ _

____Noonan pushed harder but the angel pushed back. Fine, he thought. Be as difficult as you wish, it’ll change nothing._ _ _ _

____He made to lean back, to heave the angel over the side, but then Castiel slammed his head back._ _ _ _

____Noonan started; the pain was brutal and sudden. Blood spattered out of his nose, drenching his lips. He dropped the seraph on instinct, and staggered back._ _ _ _

____Castiel gained his feet quickly and turned. His eyes flashed lightning blue._ _ _ _

____“As I said,” he snarled. ”I won’t help you. And I’m not going back in there.”_ _ _ _

____He rushed him. Noonan was driven back, cursing himself. He shouldn’t have taken it for granted that he’d seen the best of the angel. Now he was paying for it, but he still had the advantage._ _ _ _

____Here, in the catacombs, Castiel would still be weak. Nathair would help bring him to his knees again and then, despite the angel’s insistence, he would be going back into the coffin, and might never leave it._ _ _ _

____He blocked a fierce punch that almost shattered his arm, but was staggered when Castiel followed up with a solid blow to his right side that sent pain stabbing through him._ _ _ _

____The angel didn’t let up. Castiel might have been unarmed, but Noonan was taking the beating of his life. In the end, with no other choice, he shifted and dropped to the floor._ _ _ _

____Castiel danced backwards as he struck again and again at him, always managing to miss him by a split second. He was tiring. The angel was too, he could tell. But whose stamina would fail first?_ _ _ _

____With Nathair watching, Noonan was determined it wouldn’t be him, and he made a desperate lunge forward._ _ _ _

____His fangs snagged the angel’s pants, teeth catching fabric instead of flesh, and a moment later the angel’s foot was on his neck._ _ _ _

____His lashed up with his tail, wrapping it around Castiel’s leg and squeezed. He heard him gasp in pain, but then the seraph reached down and grabbed him._ _ _ _

____Noonan fought, but the angel managed to uncoil him, and then he threw him across the chamber. He hit one of the pillars, and landed heavily, winded and sore._ _ _ _

____Nathair was watching. He could feel the god’s fury, saw it in its eyes. The larger snake turned on the angel and moved quickly towards him._ _ _ _

____Castiel turned and ran into one of the side rooms._ _ _ _

____Noonan shifted back and drew himself up, though he had to lean on the pillar for support. Running wouldn’t save Castiel. Other than the passageway, which neither of them had any intention of letting Castiel reach, there was no other way out…_ _ _ _

____The hole._ _ _ _

____Nathair seemed to realise the angel’s intent at the same time as Noonan did. It tried to cut Castiel off, rearing up and striking in front of his path._ _ _ _

____Castiel staggered and fell. He scuttled backwards, heels digging into the dirt, but Nathair slithered towards him._ _ _ _

____Noonan could sense his thoughts, and realised he was communicating with the angel when Castiel cried out in pain and curled in on himself._ _ _ _

____Slowly, still aching, Noonan limped across the chamber to the fallen seraph. He didn’t doubt his ribs were cracked or broken, but they’d heal._ _ _ _

____Then, as he bent to pick Castiel up, he heard a strange voice ring out, stopping him before he could lay a hand on the angel._ _ _ _

____“You put a hand on him, snake boy, I’ll do more than defang you. You and your boss. Between the two of you, you’ll make a hell of a lot of bags, belts and boots.”_ _ _ _

____::_ _ _ _

____They made it maybe fifty feet, Chuck only knew how, without getting bitten, but Dean knew their luck wouldn’t hold forever. Sooner or later one or both of them was going to get a dose of venom, or one of those fucking constrictors (they’d even run into a massive anaconda, coiled in the dark, that had lashed out with more speed than Dean had thought something that chunky could own) was going to grab hold, and that would be that._ _ _ _

____There was still no sign of Gabriel, and the constant running and dodging and slashing off snake heads was starting to tell. Dean had tried praying to him on and off, alternating between giving him hell and telling him they were about to get eaten, but there had been no reappearance. No sudden angel rescue._ _ _ _

____He guessed they were pretty much on their own._ _ _ _

____“There,” Sam panted. “There’s a door.”_ _ _ _

____Dean saw where Sam pointed. He scanned it quickly with his torch, then slashed at another snake that took the opportunity to try for him._ _ _ _

____It fell, chopped in two, and Dean kicked its still twitching corpse into the darkness._ _ _ _

____“Ok, let’s try it.”_ _ _ _

____The doors were wide and stone, but when the brothers threw themselves at them, nothing happened._ _ _ _

____“Try pulling,” Sam yelled._ _ _ _

____They gripped the edges and yanked, still checking behind them, overhead, trying to keep their flashlights covering as much of the area as they could._ _ _ _

____It was taking too much time._ _ _ _

____“Leave it,” Dean panted. “It’s not gonna budge.”_ _ _ _

____He turned, grabbing Sam, and that was when his flashlight showed what a bad idea stopping had been._ _ _ _

____The anaconda was gliding slowly towards them in a sinuous, almost insulting rhythm. Like it knew they had nowhere to go._ _ _ _

____And they didn’t. To left and right, more snakes were slithering towards them. Dean heard several rattlers, but he couldn’t place the sounds. Too close, anyway._ _ _ _

____Something black hissed and struck at him, but Sam was fast enough to drive it back with a swing of his machete._ _ _ _

____It retreated sullenly, but Dean knew they were trapped, with no way to protect themselves against this many._ _ _ _

____The snakes knew it too. They advanced, inch by inch, though not one seemed as brave now to be the first to die._ _ _ _

____Or maybe they just knew they could take their time._ _ _ _

____“Fuck this,” Dean snarled. He threw back his head, and yelled, “Gabriel. You bastard, you said to trust you! Help us!”_ _ _ _

____There was no answer, and part of Dean knew he hadn’t expected one. They’d followed Gabriel in here, and only because there’d been no choice, no other way to get to Cas._ _ _ _

____He only hoped Gabriel hadn’t abandoned him too._ _ _ _

____“Dean,” Sam cried, the same moment as something hit Dean hard on the shoulder._ _ _ _

____He staggered, almost pitching into the writhing mass of snakes. Sam caught his coat, yanked him back in time, and then to the right._ _ _ _

____One side of the stone doorway was wrenching open, with no explanation that Dean could perceive. He didn't question it, just shoved Sam through and darted after him._ _ _ _

____The door started to grate shut behind them, a few snakes darting through. The brothers fell back as the anaconda tried to push through the gap._ _ _ _

____It became wedged, hissing and snapping. More snakes squirmed over and around it, and Dean saw they were trying to push the door back._ _ _ _

____“Fuck,” Sam gasped. Hands appeared through the doorway, fingers gripping the stone._ _ _ _

____Inch by inch they were widening the gap. Things hissed and struck at them, but the lower numbers meant they were able to kill them without injury. If the anaconda made it through though…_ _ _ _

____“Come on!” Dean yelled. “Help us!” They’d come in here with a damn archangel and he couldn't hold a frigging door. Gabriel's intervention was the only thing that made sense._ _ _ _

____A face appeared at the doorway. It was...it looked like a man, except for the pale yellow eyes. The gap was not quite wide enough for him, but Dean watched his body...flatten almost. He seemed to elongate his way through the narrow opening, though his hips snagged for a moment._ _ _ _

____Then he was in the room, and Dean, despite the darkness, recognised him._ _ _ _

____The angel blade in his hand just confirmed it._ _ _ _

____“You fucker,” he snarled._ _ _ _

____Behind him the anaconda suddenly began to thrash. The door was closing over again, inch by painful inch. Suddenly, with a horrific thump, it slammed shut._ _ _ _

____What seemed like fifty snakes, the anaconda among them, were severed in two. Their front halves squelched away from the door, writhing until they finally fell still._ _ _ _

____The man glanced back, briefly, at the bisected bodies. He snapped his attention back to them, opened his mouth and hissed._ _ _ _

____His mouth was full of curved fangs._ _ _ _

____Dean had time to tear the hold-all from his shoulder and dump it before he was rushed._ _ _ _

____The weresnake knew how to use a blade. He sliced and parried, and Dean might have had the machete, but he felt like he was definitely punching above his weight._ _ _ _

____Sam was busy killing as many of the snakes who’d made it through as he could. Dean tried to keep an eye on him, watch his back, but the one he was fighting was too good for him to get distracted._ _ _ _

____Sam would be fine._ _ _ _

____He had to be._ _ _ _

____The edge of Cas’s blade snagged his jacket, and Dean took the advantage. He drove his knee into the shifter’s ribs, felt something cave, and the guy staggered back._ _ _ _

____Dean didn’t hesitate. He swung the machete, spinning with it, and the force took the guy’s head clean off._ _ _ _

____His body fell, but Dean found no respite._ _ _ _

____Something crawled over it and struck at him. He dodged it, barely, lashed out with the machete, and caught something._ _ _ _

____Sam was backing towards him, torchlight dancing around the floor as he tracked the rest of the snakes and picked off any that got too close._ _ _ _

____Back to back, they finished off the survivors until they had to lean on each other to keep standing, breathing loud, rasping off the walls._ _ _ _

____Dull thumps sounded against the door, and they tensed, but something told Dean they weren’t getting in. Gradually, the noises faded._ _ _ _

____“Giving up,” Sam panted._ _ _ _

____“Nah,” Dean said. “They’ll look for another way in.”_ _ _ _

____They scanned the floor and walls for any gaps or other exits. But there was nothing. Dean let his head slump back against the wall. It was better than being about to get devoured by a bunch of snakes, but stuck in a pitch black stone room with no way out didn’t appeal much either._ _ _ _

____He let his flashlight scour the ceiling again, just to be sure, and noticed that in the centre there was a patch of shadow that seemed different._ _ _ _

____When the light hit it, he got an impression of depth. He stood up, stiff, sore, tired, and moved closer._ _ _ _

____Looking up, shining the torch into the darkness, he could make out an illuminated circle several feet above. It was some kind of vertical tunnel._ _ _ _

____“Sam.”_ _ _ _

____Sam limped over and his torch joined Dean’s._ _ _ _

____“What the hell,” he muttered. “Think we can climb up there?”_ _ _ _

____Sam boosted him up. The inside the tunnel had ridges, some the width of his hand. The problem was the height of it. From down here, it was impossible to judge, but Dean wasn’t sure after their fight through the passageways that they had the strength to attempt it._ _ _ _

____But if it was too much for them to climb, he was pretty sure none of the snakes could drop down either, not if they didn’t want to land with a splat for the attempt._ _ _ _

____He clambered down, and shook his head at his brother._ _ _ _

____“We can’t stay here,” Sam said._ _ _ _

____No, they couldn’t. They had no water, no food; they were essentially under siege. He had no faith in Gabriel, even if the archangel had somehow reached out to help them hole up in there._ _ _ _

____They couldn’t save Cas if they couldn’t save themselves first._ _ _ _

____He glanced back up the tunnel._ _ _ _

____“I guess we don’t have a choice.”_ _ _ _

____He searched the floor of the room until his torchlight glinted off something shiny. Cas’s blade. He picked it up, used his pant-leg to wipe it clean of snake blood, and shoved it in his hold-all._ _ _ _

____“Let’s go.”_ _ _ _

____::_ _ _ _

____Cas felt something sharp hit the back of his throat. He swallowed on instinct, tasted blood. The pain in his head was unbearable and he knew if it didn’t stop, it wouldn’t matter much if he did or didn’t agree with Nathair’s plan._ _ _ _

____He'd be dead._ _ _ _

____When he heard the voice, he couldn’t make out the words, but there was something familiar about it._ _ _ _

____His Grace, flayed though it was, seemed to flare up, as if reaching out in recognition. Despite the agony, Castiel rolled onto his stomach and managed to raise his head enough to see who had spoken._ _ _ _

____His vision blurred, leaving him blinking desperately. When it cleared he was unsure if he was hallucinating or not._ _ _ _

____Gabriel was standing in the entrance to the chamber, blade held before him, eyes gleaming with the power of his Grace._ _ _ _

____Noonan and Nathair turned to him, and the serpent’s voice became fainter until it ceased altogether._ _ _ _

____“Gabriel,” Cas cried, hoarsely. “Run.”_ _ _ _

____“Not this time, little bro,” Gabriel said. “At least not without you.”_ _ _ _

____He ran at Noonan, swiping forward with the blade, forcing the other man back. Castiel tried to get to his feet, but barely made it to his knees before Nathair knocked him over with a nudge of its snout._ _ _ _

____Castiel groaned as the snake’s huge tongue flicked out, trailing over him, a subtle warning to hold his position._ _ _ _

____Despite it, Cas rolled clear, clambered awkwardly to his feet, and ran for the nearest pillar._ _ _ _

____He heard the irritated hiss and didn’t dare look back. He didn’t have to. Nathair’s movements reverberated through the ground, and he had barely reached the nearest pillar when the snake butted against it._ _ _ _

_____It’s playing with me_ , Cas realised. He’d seen the serpent easily navigate its way down one of the pillars. It could just as easily fit between them. _ _ _ _

____But so could Cas, and if he kept to moving among them, he would have an advantage. Perhaps his only one._ _ _ _

____He ducked left as Nathair slid between two of the massive supports, then lunged forward. Cas ran around the next pillar in the opposite direction, but Nathair’s size meant it easily caught him up. It coiled itself a third of the way up that pillar, watching as Cas darted past the coffin and across the chamber._ _ _ _

____It almost seemed amused._ _ _ _

____Peering out at the snake, Cas watched Nathair stretch its length past the next two pillars and wrap around the third, before undulating its way back down to the chamber floor._ _ _ _

____There was only so long he could keep this up and stay ahead of the snake. Once it had him cornered, which was inevitable, he didn’t know what would happen then._ _ _ _

____Back into the coffin, he supposed. His earlier refusal hadn’t seen the snake swallow him whole, and if the intent had been to keep him prisoner forever so Nathair could feed on his Grace, gulping him down was probably not what this _god_ wanted._ _ _ _

____But maybe there were other ways to punish him._ _ _ _

____Whatever they were, Cas wasn’t going to let Nathair use him to wage war on humanity. To sate his hunger for flesh, and power._ _ _ _

____He’d seen glimpses of what had happened before, Heaven’s battle and final attempt to destroy their enemy. He’d experienced the snake’s relish at the thought of regaining its foothold in the world._ _ _ _

____Somehow, they had to stop it._ _ _ _

____He risked a glance towards Gabriel. Cas saw his brother score a serious wound on Noonan that sent the acolyte tumbling backwards._ _ _ _

____He was bleeding, heavily._ _ _ _

____Clearly an archangel’s blade was more effective than a seraph’s. Cas supposed his own blade was somewhere in the complex, but even if he knew where and could reach it, the weapon had failed him earlier when he had been taken._ _ _ _

____He caught Nathair slithering towards him, and ran around the next pillar, taking a moment to rest behind it. This could only be a temporary measure. He had to get to Gabriel, help him defeat Noonan, then hopefully think of a way to kill Nathair._ _ _ _

____Though, from the serpent’s memories, Heaven’s attempt at destroying him had turned him only to stone. With a start Cas realised what had held down the coffin lid. What the sound of stone grating on stone had been…._ _ _ _

____Even after Heaven had struck him down, he had still retained enough life to move while petrified._ _ _ _

____There was nothing a seraph and an archangel could do to stop such a creature._ _ _ _

____But Cas didn’t have it in him not to try._ _ _ _

____He darted out from behind the pillar and threw himself at Noonan. Crashing into him, he slammed his knee up into the acolyte’s sternum and felt bone crack. Noonan let out an huge whooping breath, and blood spattered over all three of them._ _ _ _

____Gabriel moved in, driving his elbow into Noonan’s throat, sending him staggering back choking. Castiel followed through with a solid punch to his face, then a hard push which sent him tumbling backwards._ _ _ _

____Nathair was descending on them, attention focused not on Cas, but on Gabriel. It saw him as the threat, the interloper, Cas guessed, here to steal away his food source._ _ _ _

____Him, Cas knew, he could punish but needed to keep alive. Gabriel, Nathair could kill._ _ _ _

____“Watch out,” he yelled, and threw himself at Gabriel, bearing him down and out of the way, rolling them over and over until they had to be clear of the snake’s lunge._ _ _ _

____Noonan wasn’t._ _ _ _

____He turned and screamed as Nathair’s open maw snapped shut around him._ _ _ _

____For a moment, Cas expected it to spit him out. Instead it reared up, snout pointed skywards, and he could see the muscles in its body working as Noonan was swallowed._ _ _ _

____As they scrambled to their feet, Nathair slowly settled again on the ground and glared at them._ _ _ _

____“I’m glad to see you,” Cas said. “But I hope you have an idea how to kill him.”_ _ _ _

____Gabriel scoffed. “LIke I’d come in here without a plan.”_ _ _ _

____Cas risked a momentary glance sideways before returning his attention to the giant serpent gliding towards them. “You don’t have a plan, do you?”_ _ _ _

____Gabriel shrugged. “We nuked him from Heaven,” he said. “And he’s still kicking. To be honest, my plan was to run. We should do that. With any luck Dumb and Dumber took to their heels as well.”_ _ _ _

____As they backed up, Cas turned sharply on him. “You brought someone else down here? Gabriel!”_ _ _ _

____“Hey, they chose to come. About time they did something for you instead of to you, bro.”_ _ _ _

____No. Cas grabbed Gabriel by the front of his jacket and hauled him forward, off his feet. “Dean? Sam? Where are they?”_ _ _ _

____Gabriel tried to jerk free, and waved his arm desperately at Nathair. The snake had hesitated, as if not sure why the angels it was bearing down on, appeared to have turned on each other._ _ _ _

____“I needed a distraction, dammit,” Gabriel cursed at him. “Cas, let go. We need to get out of here. We’ll probably bump into them on the way!”_ _ _ _

____“Where?”_ _ _ _

____Gabriel managed to wrench free. “You’d rather die than leave without them, huh.”_ _ _ _

____“Gabriel!”_ _ _ _

____“Fine! I left them in the passageways. You’re not gonna reach ‘em, Cas. Not alone. First step you take out of this chamber and one of Captain Fang’s slithery minions’ll bite you, or the larger ones squeeze you ‘til you pass out, and you’ll end up back where you started.”_ _ _ _

____Cas ran towards the chamber’s entrance, but Nathair had other ideas. He twisted, and his tail slammed down in front of Cas, knocking him off his feet._ _ _ _

____He rolled, came back up, and retreated to where Gabriel stood._ _ _ _

____“If anything’s happened to them,” he warned._ _ _ _

____Gabriel shrugged. “It was you or them, little brother. Come on, they’re Winchesters. Even if they get killed, it won’t stick.”_ _ _ _

____“That’s not the point,” Cas snapped at him. He felt sick at the thought of Dean and Sam dying in agony of venom, or crushed to death in some serpent’s coils._ _ _ _

____For him._ _ _ _

____And their Father was gone. There would be no more miracle resurrections._ _ _ _

____He would rather die here, or return to the coffin, than see either of those men hurt._ _ _ _

____But he doubted Nathair was in the mood to bargain. Why would he? He had the upper hand. They couldn’t escape the chamber. They couldn't kill him._ _ _ _

____He would get what he wanted, no matter what they did. And Cas knew that once again, whatever the circumstances that had led to it, he would have helped something horrendous and powerful move against humanity._ _ _ _

____“I’m going after them,” he said. “Distract Nathair.”_ _ _ _

____“Wait, what?” Gabriel almost screamed at him. “What the hell with?”_ _ _ _

____“You’re the trickster,” Cas said. “Trick him.”_ _ _ _

____“I don’t perform miracles,” his brother muttered._ _ _ _

____Still, he snapped his fingers, and a moment later the chamber was filled with fifty Castiels and Gabriels, all glaring up at the snake._ _ _ _

____Castiel backed slowly away, hoping not to give Nathair cause to single him out._ _ _ _

_____For what it’s worth, they’re still alive,_ Gabriel thought to him. He kept his eyes on the snake, giving it no clue as to which of the replicas standing around the chamber was the real thing. _I can hear them praying. Your human squeeze’s got a filthy mouth on him.__ _ _ _

_____Well,_ Cas thought. _By now he's figured out you used them as bait. Wait until he sees you again.__ _ _ _

____Presuming any of them survived this. But if any of them did, Cas intended to ensure it was those brothers._ _ _ _

____He only stopped moving once he was in the anteroom with the hole, and he glanced down at it fearfully. The opening was massive, and looking down its length, he saw it was a tunnel. Given its size, he reasoned it was intended for Nathair._ _ _ _

____Why, he wasn’t sure. He had the run of the catacombs. There had to be a reason for this specific opening, but for now it didn’t matter. Cas doubted any of the acolytes would be able to crawl up it._ _ _ _

____Bending down, Cas let his fingers rest on the rim of the tunnel. The senses of his true form were less hampered now, and he perceived more of the room than was visible from his human eyes. He got a sense of a wide chamber, with a stone door sealed shut from the outside._ _ _ _

____It was secure._ _ _ _

____Cas dropped to sit in a cross legged position. If Gabriel could hold Nathair’s attention, then he should be safe enough here, for now. If he was quick._ _ _ _

____He closed his eyes and reached out. Then he heard Dean. Scared, desperate._ _ _ _

____The problem was that _angel radio_ worked one way between humans and angels. Humans prayed, and if God, or as it turned out whichever of the higher angels had assumed the mantle of authority without letting the rank and file know of it, willed it, the angel or angels concerned answered with a miracle._ _ _ _

____The only other route from angel to human was through dreams, and Cas doubted Dean would choose now to fall asleep._ _ _ _

____But there was one other thing he could try._ _ _ _

____There was still a link between them, created by pulling each brother from Hell, and forged in the trials they’d endured since. It was probably unlike any other connection an angel could have with their charge, and Cas seized it, using his Grace to bolster its strength._ _ _ _

____He couldn’t influence Dean or Sam outright, short of taking them as vessels, and he doubted either would agree to that. But he could draw their attention, guide them as best he could to the room below his._ _ _ _

____He felt their fear, could almost hear their hearts pounding as they fought and ran and fought. It was Sam who spotted the door first._ _ _ _

____They struggled with it, and Cas tried to push against it with his Grace._ _ _ _

____But it resisted, and he felt his own panic then. Had he led the brothers to that door only for it to cost them their lives?_ _ _ _

____They were cut off; he could hear Dean screaming at Gabriel. Of course, they would think him incapacitated. They’d come here to rescue him._ _ _ _

____They would not expect him to be able to help._ _ _ _

____Cas pushed against the door with everything he had. It opened, accidentally striking Dean as it did so, but Sam was fast, and then they were both inside._ _ _ _

____Closing it over, against the weight of the snakes trying to keep it open, was a challenge in itself, but he managed. He felt the brothers’ relief as they finished off any of the disciples who’d managed to get through._ _ _ _

____But they thought themselves trapped._ _ _ _

____Cas leaned over the tunnel. It was a long way to climb. He could try to lift them up, but with the catacombs’ influence still upon him, he wasn’t sure he dared._ _ _ _

____Gabriel screamed suddenly, and Cas jerked around. Nathair was lashing out with tail and fangs, shredding the doubles Gabriel had created._ _ _ _

____And almost Gabriel himself. The archangel barely dove out of the way as the serpent lunged at him._ _ _ _

____The remaining doubles vanished._ _ _ _

____There was no more time._ _ _ _

_____Dean_ , Cas urged. _Dean. Look up. Look up.__ _ _ _

____::_ _ _ _

____By the time they were halfway up, Dean’s arms felt like jelly. Every inch of him seemed to tremble, and he didn’t dare look up towards the light._ _ _ _

____If he did, he wasn’t sure he could psych himself into keeping going. He’d considered dumping his hold-all half way up, the weight an extra burden. But though there hadn’t been a safe place to use what was in it yet, they might need it before this was over. If he let it go, then it was gone for good._ _ _ _

____Later, that might cost them dearly._ _ _ _

____“Sam?”_ _ _ _

____He heard the pain and exhaustion in his brother’s voice. “I’m here.”_ _ _ _

____“We gotta keep going.”_ _ _ _

____Sam grunted. “I know.”_ _ _ _

____“I mean it.”_ _ _ _

____“I know.”_ _ _ _

____But Dean knew he was wavering. He was, himself, but at least if they fell…_ _ _ _

____Death would probably be immediate, and a damn sight better than getting swallowed alive or bleeding to death out of every damn hole or their lungs just giving up on them._ _ _ _

____“I won’t quit if you don’t.”_ _ _ _

____Sam chuckled, but it was empty. “You gonna challenge me to a race? Last to the top gets to do the laundry? Wash the car?”_ _ _ _

____“No way I’m letting you wash her, Sammy.”_ _ _ _

____“I didn’t scratch her, Dean. We’re stuck in a never ending tunnel, we’re either gonna get eaten by snakes or break our necks in a fall, and you can’t let it go.”_ _ _ _

____Dean grinned. “You got a problem with it, dude, come at me.”_ _ _ _

____There was a moment of silence, and Dean almost looked down, but then Sam's voice drifted back up to him._ _ _ _

____“You’re an asshole.”_ _ _ _

____He laughed then, loud, genuine. Sam wasn’t going to quit. Neither was he. “So tell me to my face up top, whiner.”_ _ _ _

____He started to climb again, ignoring his body’s protests. He wasn’t going to die here, and he wasn't going to let Sam either._ _ _ _

____When they got to the top, they had a giant snake to rescue their angel from, but Dean focused on getting there first._ _ _ _

____Hand over hand, feet sometimes finding a grip and then slipping from it, he yanked himself upwards._ _ _ _

____The top came eventually, and he had to drag himself over. Sam was only a few feet behind and, though it felt like his brother’s weight would tug his arm off, he grabbed Sam's hand, hauling him up too._ _ _ _

____They collapsed next to each other, sweat-drenched and lungs heaving. Dean wasn’t sure either of them could have moved an inch if their lives depended on it._ _ _ _

____Something hard hit the ground, shaking it, and Dean rolled onto his side._ _ _ _

____He couldn’t believe his eyes. Gabriel had told him, but what he saw squirm past the room they’d climbed into eclipsed the archangel’s tale of a massive snake god that wanted to eat everything._ _ _ _

____Given the size of it, though, he could understand its appetite._ _ _ _

____“Get up,” he told Sam._ _ _ _

____Sam pushed himself to his knees, then toppled over._ _ _ _

____“Get up!” Dean yelled, grabbing the shoulder of Sam’s jacket, and hauling him back onto his knees. He then grabbed Sam's arm and got him up on unsteady feet._ _ _ _

____“Okay, okay, I’m up - holy shit!”_ _ _ _

____There might have been something comical in Sam’s stunned expression if there wasn’t a giant snake metres away chasing down two angels…_ _ _ _

____Two._ _ _ _

____Cas._ _ _ _

____Dean watched Cas duck a lunge from the snake and dart behind a pillar. Gabriel ran in from the other side, lashed out with his blade and then raced away._ _ _ _

____The snake twisted around to stare at him as if he’d spat at it. He might as well have. There wasn’t even a scratch where he’d sliced at it._ _ _ _

____But Cas. Cas was alive._ _ _ _

____So they’d found him. Now they just had to get out alive._ _ _ _

____::_ _ _ _

____Nathair twisted around on himself, and smacked his tail at Gabriel. He jumped clear at the last minute, landed awkwardly, but got up before Nathair could come fully around to get after him again._ _ _ _

____Cas took the opportunity to run across the chamber, drawing Nathair’s attention until Gabriel picked up a piece of stone dislodged from a wall or a pillar, and threw it at the snake._ _ _ _

____Nathair seemed more annoyed by their refusal to stand still and be taken than by their attacks. Nothing they’d done so far seemed to have had much impact on him._ _ _ _

____At this point, Cas doubted they were doing more than helping him work up an appetite._ _ _ _

_____Gabriel_ , he thought desperately. _Don't take stupid chances_._ _ _ _

____His brother had darted out from behind one of the supports, and was hopping from foot to foot, making a number of obscene gestures which Cas now understood (and not all of that was due to Metatron; the Winchesters had shared in some of his human education without realising it) and then raced out of the way when Nathair came at him._ _ _ _

____Each miss was closer than the last. Angels they might be, but they were starting to tire. Cas knew he had been the intended occupant of this sepulchre, but maybe its influence was starting to affect Gabriel as well._ _ _ _

____He heard someone yell his name, and spun around to see Dean and Sam staggering out of the tunnel room._ _ _ _

____Cas almost couldn’t believe it. They were safe, alive. He could see it for himself. They’d made it out of that room._ _ _ _

____He wished he’d been able to stay and help them, but they’d made it. That was all that mattered._ _ _ _

____But while they were free of the room below, and the mass of disciples waiting outside, they might not be any safer here._ _ _ _

____Dean yelled a warning to him but, before Cas could turn, something smashed into him and knocked him to the ground._ _ _ _

____Gabriel careened in another direction, landing roughly. He tumbled into his back and lay coughing. Castiel scrambled to him; he glanced quickly at Dean and Sam and saw them come running towards him._ _ _ _

____Cas shook his head frantically. So far Nathair seemed unaware of their presence, and its ignorance bought them time. Once he had Dean’s attention, his jerked his gaze towards the exit. They could go now while the serpent was distracted. Cas would let it take him, let it put him back in the stone tomb, if it gave the brothers time to escape._ _ _ _

____The disciples would likely still be outside the room below. Even if they had realised their prey had escaped, they might not think to check here. Even if they did, if Sam and Dean fled now, they might had a chance…._ _ _ _

____Then he saw the looks on their faces._ _ _ _

____They were not going to listen._ _ _ _

____When they prayed this time, it was to him._ _ _ _

_____We’re not leaving you, Cas._ _ _ _ _

_____If we get out of here, we’re going together._ _ _ _ _

_____We’re family._ _ _ _ _

____“You know,” Gabriel said. “This is really touching, but I’m the one who’s dying here.”_ _ _ _

____Cas grimaced as he tore open Gabriel’s shirt. There was a wide, reddened gouge across his abdomen. A viscous yellow fluid was dribbling out of the wound._ _ _ _

____“You’re not dying,” Cas told him sternly. “Not again.”_ _ _ _

____“Technically,” Gabriel said. “I didn’t die the first time.”_ _ _ _

____“I think you’re this frustrating on purpose,” Castiel said. He pressed his hand against the wound, pushed his Grace into it. Gabriel hissed and tried to buck away from him, but injured as he was, Cas was able to hold him in place._ _ _ _

____Beneath his touch, the venom was expelled and the wound began to heal sluggishly; his own muted Grace was little match for Nathair’s power. Cas knew he couldn't heal it completely, but if he could just get Gabriel to a point where his own strength would be enough for him to take over..._ _ _ _

____“Sorry you wasted your time there, little brother.”_ _ _ _

____Cas kept his hand in place, but twisted around to see Nathair lying behind them._ _ _ _

____If he didn’t know better, he would have thought the serpent was grinning at him._ _ _ _

_____Enough games, little angel. Back, back where you belong._ _ _ _ _

____::_ _ _ _

____“Cas!”_ _ _ _

____It maybe wasn’t the smartest thing he’d ever done. But he couldn’t help it. They’d climbed up and Cas was there, suddenly._ _ _ _

____Not dead. Not eaten or drained or crushed or any of the torments Dean had been convinced the angel had suffered._ _ _ _

____When Cas glanced back at him, Dean could see his relief. But he knew Cas well enough to see through it. It wasn’t for himself, it was for them. That they were safe._ _ _ _

____“Shit,” Sam said, and that drew Dean’s focus, in time to see the snake god lunge at Gabriel, batting him backwards with one strike of its massive head._ _ _ _

____“Cas!” Dean yelled again, this time in warning, but Cas turned too slow and Gabriel hit him like a cannon ball, spilling them both head over heels to the ground._ _ _ _

____He saw Cas pull Gabriel to him, and check his injury. Given that Gabriel wasn’t getting up, Dean figured it was a big deal, not something the archangel was going to shake off._ _ _ _

____He saw blood, even from across the chamber, and he figured Nathair had snagged Gabriel with his fangs._ _ _ _

____He started forward at the same time as Sam did, reaching down for the hold-all as he moved, but then Cas was shaking his head at them, trying to urge them back._ _ _ _

____The moment he knew he had their attention, Dean saw him flick his eyes towards the huge entrance to the chamber._ _ _ _

____It was like being back in that barn. _Leave me_ ,Cas had begged. _Save yourself. Let me delay Ramiel so you can escape. _____ _ _

______Nathair was slithering up behind them._ _ _ _ _ _

______Dean didn’t care. They hadn’t abandoned Cas to a prince of hell. They weren’t abandoning him to a giant snake either._ _ _ _ _ _

______He hoped Cas had his ears on, because he wanted to make himself clear._ _ _ _ _ _

_______We’re not leaving you, Cas._ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______If we get out of here, we’re going together._ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______We’re family._ _ _ _ _ _ _

______Nathair was on them, then. He leaned down over Cas, and Dean swore he could see the fucking thing grinning at them._ _ _ _ _ _

_______Not an inch closer, you bastard_ , he thought. _Don’t you fucking touch him.__ _ _ _ _ _

______He crouched down and unzipped the hold-all._ _ _ _ _ _

______Sam looked down at his machete, back at Nathair, and then down at where Dean was unzipping the bag._ _ _ _ _ _

______“I don’t think a shotgun’s going to do much good.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______“Me neither,” Dean said._ _ _ _ _ _

______Sam leaned over his shoulder, and gave a huff of disbelief when he saw what Dean was uncovering._ _ _ _ _ _

______“You’re kidding, right? You’re going to use that in here?”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Dean glanced into the chamber. Cas had turned, and stood, putting himself between Gabriel and Nathair. Keeping the snake’s attention on him._ _ _ _ _ _

______Whether it was because he thought Dean might have a plan and wanted to give him time to execute it, or whether he still hoped they might try to escape while the snake’s focus was elsewhere, he didn’t know. But, knowing Cas, it was more likely the latter._ _ _ _ _ _

______That hurt more than he'd expected. It was probably going to take more than telling that dumb ass angel once or twice, but it was something else he would fix once this was over. Once they were all out of here._ _ _ _ _ _

______He was building up quite the list._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Unless you’ve got a better idea,” he told Sam. Yeah, his plan wasn’t ideal; Dean got that they were basically in a big stone underground room, but there was the biggest snake to have ever lived towering over Cas and Gabriel, and Dean wasn’t about to leave them defenceless._ _ _ _ _ _

______Well, leave Cas. Gabriel could choke, as far as he was concerned._ _ _ _ _ _

______But if Nathair killed them, if he got out of here…_ _ _ _ _ _

______Dean had been faced with too many apocalypses in his life. He was done with it. Done with the world hanging over the edge of a huge fucking drop._ _ _ _ _ _

______He heard Gabriel yell, and as he stood, the grenade launcher in his arms, he saw Nathair nudge Cas away from his brother, towards the middle of the room._ _ _ _ _ _

______Dean scrambled to hoist the launcher onto his shoulder. Maybe Gabriel had been wrong. Maybe it did eat angels. Maybe it was too pissed at them now to care._ _ _ _ _ _

______It was so damn huge, he couldn’t imagine it struggling to swallow down a tank, never mind a six foot angel._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Dean!” Sam yelled._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Yeah, I know.” He couldn’t aim for the head. He’d hit Cas too._ _ _ _ _ _

______The body. Safest shot, widest part._ _ _ _ _ _

______He pulled the trigger and the recoil knocked him into Sam, sending them both to their knees._ _ _ _ _ _

______::_ _ _ _ _ _

______Trying to resist being pushed away from Gabriel made Cas realise just how little chance he had against Nathair._ _ _ _ _ _

______The snake nudged him aside, then again, using just enough force to keep him moving, pushing him towards the centre of the room._ _ _ _ _ _

_______Pick up the lid for me, little seraph. If you don’t I’ll bite your brother in two._ _ _ _ _ _ _

______Cas glanced at the stone cover, almost five metres away. Then what, he wondered. No doubt Nathair would expect him to seal himself inside, and await its appetite._ _ _ _ _ _

______He considered agreeing, with the condition that Nathair only keep him. He didn’t think he was in any better of a position now to make deals than he was earlier. And to barter his freedom for the survival of his family meant giving away Sam and Dean’s presence._ _ _ _ _ _

______Even if Nathair agreed, Cas had zero certainty the snake would keep its word._ _ _ _ _ _

______The last thing he wanted was to hear their screams from inside the coffin as Nathair consumed them, while he was unable to protect them._ _ _ _ _ _

______But then it wasn’t like he could protect them now._ _ _ _ _ _

______Gabriel laughed, but it turned halfway into a groan._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Trust the homestead to half-ass your education, bro. It won’t eat us. Ok, it won’t eat me.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Cas couldn’t risk looking away from Nathair. He inched closer, and Cas knew he was being played with._ _ _ _ _ _

______No doubt the snake wanted to see if it could make him run, or beg._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Are you so sure?”_ _ _ _ _ _

______“Trust me. Why do you think it’s only your Grace it wants? Physically, we don’t go down well.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Nathair parted its jaws wider. Rows of twisted fangs filled its mouth, and its breath was like a hot rancid stream of air washing over him._ _ _ _ _ _

______If Gabriel was wrong…._ _ _ _ _ _

______“I’m never wrong,” his brother protested._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Keep out of my head, Gabriel.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______He heard Gabriel panting as he pushed himself upright, heard him wheezing in pain. He knew then. He’d seen the idea forming in his mind._ _ _ _ _ _

______“You’re crazy. You could bleed yourself dry and it’d never work!”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Something exploded from behind them. It was loud and fast, and it hit Nathair side on._ _ _ _ _ _

______Fire exploded against the snake. It reared up, twisting and flailing, before slamming back down and rolling halfway onto its side._ _ _ _ _ _

______It took a few moments for the echoes of the explosion to fade. The air stank of charred flesh, and an acrid smoke wafted around them._ _ _ _ _ _

______Cas turned around to where the brothers stood. Dean was lowering the weapon he’d appropriated, the one he was constantly bemoaning that he hadn’t yet got to use._ _ _ _ _ _

______Now he had, and Cas couldn’t deny his excellent timing._ _ _ _ _ _

______Neither, it seemed, could Dean. His face was almost split in a wide grin._ _ _ _ _ _

______Even though Cas loved him, part of him knew Dean would be insufferable over this for weeks to come._ _ _ _ _ _

______Then Dean’s grin vanished._ _ _ _ _ _

______Cas felt warm air ruffle his hair, his clothing. Cas turned slowly, but he already knew what he’d see._ _ _ _ _ _

______Nathair was staring at him, eyes wild with temper. It rolled itself back onto its belly, but its gaze passed the angel._ _ _ _ _ _

______It fell on Dean and Sam, and the loathing Cas sensed from it was terrifying._ _ _ _ _ _

______He darted into the snake’s line of sight._ _ _ _ _ _

______“No. I’ll do what you want, Nathair. Just let them go.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Gabriel sputtered a protest but Cas silenced him with a frantic wave of his hand._ _ _ _ _ _

_______I know what I’m doing, Gabriel. Be ready._ _ _ _ _ _ _

______Nathair’s voice sounded in his head, sharp, unforgiving, but Cas was ready. He pushed back against the pain._ _ _ _ _ _

_______You would try to bargain with me! Foolish little angel. You will do what I want, and once I have you sealed up again, I will watch the other one die in agony. After I’ve eaten those two humans._ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______I’ll take my time over it._ _ _ _ _ _ _

______It crawled past Cas, slowly, stalking its way towards the room where Dean and Sam stood. They started to back up, but where could they go?_ _ _ _ _ _

______Even if they managed to climb down the tunnel, Nathair would only follow, and they would be trapped with it below._ _ _ _ _ _

______Cas dropped to his knees next to Gabriel._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Give me your blade.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Gabriel shook his head in furious protest, but Cas cupped his face, held him still. “Gabriel.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______“Cas, please, no.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Yes, Cas thought. Even Nathair had its limits, hungry as it was, and this was all he had._ _ _ _ _ _

______“I’m not going to let you.” Gabriel grabbed his arm, his grip biting. “It’ll kill you.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Cas squeezed Gabriel’s hand. “I want you to look after them for me. Gabriel, I mean it. I want you to keep them safe.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Gabriel shot a look of loathing at the brothers as they scrambled towards the back of the chamber. Nathair advanced relentlessly._ _ _ _ _ _

______“That's practically a vocation.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Castiel smiled at his brother. Oh, he knew _that_ was true. But it was one Cas had accepted once he’d realised just how much he loved them. “We both know you’ll manage, Gabriel. You’ll have to, because I won’t be here and I want them to be protected.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______When he’d killed the reaper, he had known what her threatened cosmic consequences would likely be. But he’d never quite imagined this._ _ _ _ _ _

______He snatched up Gabriel’s blade and raced after Nathair. The snake’s pace was leisurely but its size alone meant it was almost at the entrance to the side room. If it got any closer, its bulk would trap Dean and Sam inside._ _ _ _ _ _

______He didn’t know if Dean had any more ammunition for the grenade launcher, but it had proved ineffective, and using it in the chamber had been incredibly reckless. Now, with Nathair only metres away, it would be suicide._ _ _ _ _ _

______He ran as hard and as fast as he could, until he was almost abreast with the snake, and yelled, “Nathair!”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Nathair turned, and Cas struck._ _ _ _ _ _

______He buried Gabriel’s blade hilt deep in Nathair’s eye. There was a horrid sensation of pressure, of something _popping_ and then Nathair hissed and jerked its head away._ _ _ _ _ _

______It cleared the entrance to the room, and the brothers took their chance. Dean held onto the grenade launcher, Sam grabbed the bag, and they bolted away. Nathair snapped its jaws at them, but, half blind, bit down only on air._ _ _ _ _ _

______Cas gave chase, dodging the serpent’s flailing movements until he was in front of it._ _ _ _ _ _

______The massive tongue licked at the air, and Nathair stilled._ _ _ _ _ _

______“I know that hurts,” he said. “If I let you feed on me, I want your word you’ll let the others go.”_ _ _ _ _ _

_______I’ll kill you_ , Nathair promised. _You could have sustained me for such a long time, seraph. You could have revitalised a god. Now you’ll die and no one will remember you ever existed.__ _ _ _ _ _

______Cas spread his arms, mockingly. “And who will sustain you then?”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Across the chamber, Sam was helping Gabriel sit up. His brother was pale, sweating, but even from there Cas could see the wound slowly closing over._ _ _ _ _ _

______Dean was standing watching them, and Cas saw him quietly kneel, putting the launcher on the ground, opening the bag again, pulling out a cylindrical canister, sliding it inside…._ _ _ _ _ _

______He caught Dean’s eye once more, and glanced sharply to his left, to the pillar Nathair was lying next to. It might help._ _ _ _ _ _

_______There’s more than one angel_ , Nathair said, and lunged._ _ _ _ _ _

______::_ _ _ _ _ _

______Even as the serpent moved, Dean did too. It was a dumb idea, but that was all they had left._ _ _ _ _ _

______In a way, he’d accepted they were probably not making it out of here._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Get down,” he told Sam, watched his little brother drop and cover Gabriel as best he could, then he aimed the launcher and fired._ _ _ _ _ _

______The round flew straight over Nathair, and the snake’s head whipped around at the noise._ _ _ _ _ _

______The side of the pillar beside it exploded in a cloud of dust and stone chips. Some of it reached even them, and Dean felt tiny sharp cuts on his face and hands._ _ _ _ _ _

______He’d never heard a snake laugh, but the long hissing sound, coupled with the obvious glee on the snake’s face made it clear he was hearing it now._ _ _ _ _ _

_______Yeah_ , he thought. _Stay cocky, you bastard.__ _ _ _ _ _

______There was a sharp cracking sound, and with no further warning, the pillar broke in two, a jagged line ripping through it._ _ _ _ _ _

______Cas jumped back, but Nathair was too big, too slow, too close._ _ _ _ _ _

______A massive piece of the pillar broke free from the roof. It collapsed onto the snake, long and heavy enough to pin it just behind its head._ _ _ _ _ _

______Its tail thumped and snapped, and it writhed every way it could, but the pillar was huge._ _ _ _ _ _

______A terrific rumbling sound echoed around the chamber._ _ _ _ _ _

______Dean watched the ceiling in alarm. Yeah, there was probably a reason why nobody used grenade launchers indoors, but let somebody have a giant snake to kill. And then come lecture him about health and safety._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Get Gabriel,” he said. He dumped the launcher back in the hold-all and shouldered it. “I’ll get Cas.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______The cracking, thunderous noise was getting louder._ _ _ _ _ _

______He started across the chamber, watching the struggling snake, and then stopped when he saw Cas clamber up the broken pillar, using it to balance on top of Nathair’s head._ _ _ _ _ _

______“What the fuck,” he snapped._ _ _ _ _ _

______Cas saw him. “Please, Dean. This time, please go.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Before Dean could protest, Cas dropped to his knees._ _ _ _ _ _

______“You’ll be trapped down here,” he told Nathair. “Buried like you wanted to do to me, alone in the dark, until you die. Unless you have the strength to escape.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______The snake’s head thumped the ground, its body and tail thrashing. Cas managed to keep his balance._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Cas, c’mon,” Dean pleaded. _Go? This time?__ _ _ _ _ _

______Whatever the angel had planned, Dean hated the finality of his words._ _ _ _ _ _

______Then it happened. Cas’s eyes flared with light, and it seemed to flow out of him and into Nathair._ _ _ _ _ _

______It hissed, its eyes glowing, and Dean realised what was going on._ _ _ _ _ _

______The snake was feeding off Cas._ _ _ _ _ _

______He started forward, but Sam suddenly had hold of him._ _ _ _ _ _

______Gabriel was leaning on him heavily, but at least he no longer looked like he was an inch from death._ _ _ _ _ _

______“He’s an idiot,” the archangel said. “He thinks he can turn it back to stone.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______“You said it took all of Heaven to do that!” Dean yelled._ _ _ _ _ _

______“It wasn’t hurt then! If Cas pours it on, he might do it, but…”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Buts were never good. “But?”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Gabriel fixed his eyes on his little brother. “It’ll take all his Grace. Everything left in him.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Fuck that. Dean dumped his hold all. He could see Cas’s plan was working. Nathair’s hide was turning granite grey. Small stony flecks were trickling from its skin, and each movement, each breath seemed slower, heavier._ _ _ _ _ _

______Nathair seemed to have realised it as well._ _ _ _ _ _

______It tried to dislodge Cas, but with more than half of its body now turned, it couldn’t move enough. Cas was holding on anyway, fingers dug into what was now more stone than skin. His light seemed to be ebbing, and Dean watched him start to shudder._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Cas!” He ran to the pillar, clambered up it the way the angel had, and stumbled his way along the snake’s length._ _ _ _ _ _

______Even dimming, Cas’s light was still bright and fierce and Dean had to cover his eyes._ _ _ _ _ _

______He staggered on, reaching out one handed, until his fingers brushed Cas’s hair. He felt for his shoulder, and though he hated doing so he had no choice; he drove his knee into it, unbalancing the angel and shoving him over the edge._ _ _ _ _ _

______There was a boneless thump, and the room darkened again._ _ _ _ _ _

______Beneath Dean’s feet, almost all of Nathair was stone. The last inches of its nose began to petrify, a dull grey colour creeping over its flesh. Dean jumped, and tucked into a roll as he landed._ _ _ _ _ _

______He came up eyeball to eyeball with Nathair, the one Cas hadn’t stabbed, and even though they were not the same species, Dean thought he saw terror there._ _ _ _ _ _

______A moment later he saw nothing in it at all._ _ _ _ _ _

______Something heavy crashed down next to him. It was a three foot wide chunk of stone, and Dean glanced up. The entire roof was caving in._ _ _ _ _ _

______He dropped to his knees next to Cas. Sam had hauled Gabriel over, and the three of them turned Cas onto his back._ _ _ _ _ _

______His skin was chalk white, and when Dean pressed his hand to Cas’s cheek, all he felt was ice._ _ _ _ _ _

______“No,” he moaned._ _ _ _ _ _

______The entire chamber shook around them._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Dammit, you little dick!” Gabriel pressed one hand to Castiel’s forehead, and another to rest across his throat. His own Grace gleamed as he pushed healing through his brother. “If you think I’m spending the rest of their lives looking after these dipshits, you’re even stupider than I thought. Wake up!”_ _ _ _ _ _

______More stone fell. A large chunk hit Nathair and cracked off part of its tail._ _ _ _ _ _

______If the fucker wasn’t dead, that had to hurt. Dean hoped it was eternal agony._ _ _ _ _ _

______Cas still wasn’t moving._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Do something!” Dean yelled at Gabriel._ _ _ _ _ _

______He wasn’t ready to see the archangel slump backwards, onto his rump, and wipe a hand across his face._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Don’t you fucking dare give up on him!”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Gabriel laughed. It was brittle and full of hurt, and it cut into Dean like broken glass. “Like you, huh? He’s gone. I can’t bring him back. You never could do anything halfway, Cas, could you?”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Dean shoved him aside, and pulled Castiel into his arms. No. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go._ _ _ _ _ _

______He was supposed to get Cas home, and make sure he was ok, then send Sam for beer, or something, and get Cas alone, and _tell him_._ _ _ _ _ _

______Then it’d be ok. As ok as their lives ever got anyway._ _ _ _ _ _

______At the very least, Cas would know how he felt and, even if that was all the angel wanted, it was very much the least he deserved._ _ _ _ _ _

______He hadn’t waited too long. He hadn’t._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Don’t you dare, Cas, please,” he pleaded._ _ _ _ _ _

______Sam caught hold of his shoulder. He looked stricken, and his voice shook. “Dean, Dean, we have to go. I’m sorry.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______His hand slid from Dean’s shoulder to Cas’s and his fingers wrapped around the angel’s._ _ _ _ _ _

______Dean shook his head. He had abandoned Cas for the last time. He picked Cas up, and he was limp and heavy, but Dean didn’t care. He pulled him across his shoulder, and watched as Sam helped Gabriel stand._ _ _ _ _ _

______Wordlessly, he led them towards the exit, as the rest of the roof began to cave in behind them._ _ _ _ _ _

______::_ _ _ _ _ _

______Something was...odd._ _ _ _ _ _

______Cas awoke slowly, his Grace raw, skittish. It reached out as if to sense his surroundings, then withdrew hurriedly._ _ _ _ _ _

______Cas found he couldn’t blame it._ _ _ _ _ _

______But he didn’t know exactly why, just that everything seemed different._ _ _ _ _ _

______For one thing, the surface beneath him was soft, and warm, not cold and hard like…_ _ _ _ _ _

______Cas shot up in a panic but arms locked around him. Human flesh, not reptilian skin._ _ _ _ _ _

______“It’s ok,” someone said, and the voice was human too, and it brought a sense of comfort, of safety, not the brain piercing pain the _other_ voice had._ _ _ _ _ _

______He turned into the embrace, though his position was awkward, and found himself looking at Dean._ _ _ _ _ _

______“What…” he started. “What happened? Are you all alright?”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Dean glared at him. “You...you almost died, and you’re asking about us?” The pain in his voice, the tear that slowly trickled down his cheek, denied the anger._ _ _ _ _ _

______It might not be the cleverest thing to say, but the words were out before Cas could halt them._ _ _ _ _ _

______“I didn’t expect to survive.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Dean’s grip on him tightened. “Yeah, we know. Trying to foist us off on that dick of a brother of yours? I wouldn’t let him look after somebody’s imaginary pet. Don't you ever do that again, Cas. I mean it.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______He tried to squirm out of Dean’s embrace. He’d heard what was coming next, many times. He knew Dean cared, without justification, but it was Dean’s character. It was one of the things that had shone through him, even in the Pit. Even twisted, almost beyond saving, into Alistair’s protege._ _ _ _ _ _

______Dean would always be a guardian. A caretaker of others. A warrior who'd protect those who couldn’t protect themselves._ _ _ _ _ _

______That should never be him._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Nope,” Dean said. He pulled Cas to lie flat beside him, and Cas realised they were in bed._ _ _ _ _ _

______Dean’s bed._ _ _ _ _ _

______His heart sank, the memory of his own self inflicted disappointment still raw. He had no one to blame for that but himself. Dean had promised him nothing; it was he himself who had made things awkward and uncomfortable._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Dean,” Cas pleaded. He glanced down at himself as he tried to sense any injuries. He felt weak, certainly, but…_ _ _ _ _ _

______He wasn't wearing his usual attire._ _ _ _ _ _

______He was wearing a pair of dark sleep pants, and a worn old T-shirt bearing the image of one of the bands Dean loved._ _ _ _ _ _

______He glanced at Dean._ _ _ _ _ _

______“It’s been three days, you stupid angel, since I dragged your ass out of there. I didn’t think you were going to wake up, even when Gabriel told me he could feel your Grace recharging or whatever._ _ _ _ _ _

______“I’ve been waiting those three days because the minute you woke up I had something I wanted to tell you.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______And here, Castiel supposed, it was. Dean was going to set him straight. He was going to explain to Cas why, while he might care, he didn’t care in that way._ _ _ _ _ _

______No matter how gently he tried to let Cas down, the angel knew it would hurt as much as falling._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Please,” he said. He could feel tears nipping at his eyes. “I know, Dean. Please don’t say it.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Dean cupped the back of his neck. He drew Cas’s head forward, and left a gentle kiss on his temple._ _ _ _ _ _

______“I don’t think you do, Cas. There’s a lot I need to say to you, but I guess we’ll start with what I should have said that night. And then we can take it from there.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Cas almost didn’t dare to look at him, but Dean held his stare and he couldn’t look away._ _ _ _ _ _

______He wanted to get up, to flee, but he couldn't make himself fight out of Dean’s arms, and Dean certainly wasn’t letting go._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Dean?”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Dean leaned closer, his breath tickling as he whispered into Cas’s ear._ _ _ _ _ _

______“I love you, Cas. I never want you to leave me, because I need you. I want you in my life, every part of it. That is never going to change._ _ _ _ _ _

______This is what I wanted to tell you that night; I just couldn’t get it out. Then, next morning, it felt like the chance was gone, and so were you. Ask Sam, the only thing I wanted that whole hunt was to find you, get back to you so I could make things right.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______He was rambling and he knew it. His voice was strained and hoarse. He wanted to cry, and he didn’t know why that was._ _ _ _ _ _

______Except that he had Cas there, in his arms, and he’d said it. But there was still that pernicious fear that Cas might have changed his mind._ _ _ _ _ _

______Or might not believe him. Dean would be the first to admit that his behaviour towards Cas had never been consistent. That was going to change. If Cas was prepared to let him prove it._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Dean,” Cas said. His voice was just as low, as if they were trading secrets. “I have witnessed the lives of many humans. Observed many souls. None have ever shone as brightly, for me, as yours. Even after your torment in Hell, the enormous pain and pressure of your life, I have never seen anyone bear it with as much courage as you. Push aside the pain, and your own best interests, to protect and save others.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Dean made to shush him, but Cas persisted; gently laying a finger against his lips._ _ _ _ _ _

______“As proven by you taking on a cult of were snakes and their god to rescue me, aided only by your brother and mine.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Dean huffed against his finger. Like there was any other option. He must have thought that a little loudly, because Cas smiled._ _ _ _ _ _

______“My point. I wish you could see yourself as I do, Dean. Someone worth saving. Worth dying for. But I’m not worth you dying for me, or having to run to my rescue. I'm supposed to be your guardian, not the other way around.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Dean took hold of Cas’s hand, lowered it so he could speak. He was numb inside, Cas’s words having settled in him like a lump of ice. “I remember a time you told me you weren’t my guardian angel.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Cas gave him a look. “I think we both know I was being less than truthful.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______“Well, I don’t remember it being written anywhere that I can’t guard you back, Cas. We’re family, whether…. Whether you still mean what you said that night, or not. And I know I don’t deserve it, Cas. I don’t deserve you. If it wasn’t for me, you’d still be commander of your garrison. You’d never have gotten killed, never have had your Grace drained. Never been….”_ _ _ _ _ _

______He trailed off. He wasn’t going to bring up every shitty thing that had happened to Cas, especially not abandoning him to the mental asylum, or the streets. Just because the guilt still ate into him like acid, was no reason to make Cas relive it, as well._ _ _ _ _ _

______“I made you fall,” he managed. “And I told myself I’d fix that, I’d get you back on your feet. I’m still going to do that, whether you want to stay with me or not. But don’t ever think you’re not worth saving, Cas. You’re worth everything.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______He pulled Cas to him, tucked Cas’s head into his shoulder. The angel was shaking, and Dean figured offloading all of that on him, right after he’d woken up from a damn coma, was too much. But he’d waited before. He’d been waiting for years, and all that had brought them was pain._ _ _ _ _ _

______Cas tilted his head up, and Dean saw he was crying._ _ _ _ _ _

______“I still mean it,” Cas said, and then there was something else Dean wasn’t ready to wait any longer for._ _ _ _ _ _

______He moved in slow, carefully. Cas would never deserve anything other than care. Cas seemed to sense his intent, and waited for him._ _ _ _ _ _

______Then Dean kissed him._ _ _ _ _ _

______It was soft, gentle, little more than a promise. But it was enough. Cas seemed to settle in his arms, as if this was something he could trust in._ _ _ _ _ _

______It was. Dean didn’t care what he had to do from that moment on, but he was going to keep Cas safe. Make up for everything so far as he could, but make sure Cas knew that this was his home, they were his family, and that his worth to them, his value, went beyond his angelic nature._ _ _ _ _ _

______Most of all, that Dean was his, and he was Dean’s._ _ _ _ _ _

______And Chuck help anybody that ever tried to take Cas from him again._ _ _ _ _ _

______He frowned when Cas tensed, and something drew the angel’s attention to the bedroom door and the hall beyond._ _ _ _ _ _

______Dean followed his gaze suspiciously. He couldn’t see anything, but he got the feeling there was definitely someone out there. “Sam?”_ _ _ _ _ _

______When Sam appeared in the doorway, looking sheepish, Dean tensed up. Half of him wanted to yell at Sam to get out but he knew Sam was worried, about Cas’s health, about whether or not Dean could go through with it, about whether or not Cas would accept him._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Hello, Sam,” Cas said._ _ _ _ _ _

______Sam grinned. Just that greeting seemed to tell him it was all okay, and he came a little closer._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Cas. It’s good to see you awake. You alright?”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Cas nodded. “Getting there. Thank you, Sam.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Dean fought back a smile as his little brother flushed. “You’re family,” Sam said. “We’ll always come for you, Cas. You know that, right?”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Dean tensed. It felt, to him, as if Sam had put Cas on the spot. But that was probably just his own fear that, even if Cas told him he knew it, the angel would be saying it only for their benefit._ _ _ _ _ _

______He was a little surprised when Cas slipped out of his arms and got up, going over to Sam. Sam seemed a little surprised also when Cas hugged him. But he reciprocated soon enough, wrapping his arms tight around the angel._ _ _ _ _ _

______“There you go,” Cas said._ _ _ _ _ _

______Sam chuckled. Dean got the feeling he was missing some kind of private joke there, but he didn’t mind. He kind of liked the idea that Sam and Cas had their own little secrets._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Don't crush him,” he warned, only half joking. His little brother sometimes didn’t know his own strength, and Cas had to still be healing after trying to kill that shitty snake god._ _ _ _ _ _

______Sam released Cas almost reluctantly, and stepped back. “If you two plan on coming out anytime soon…”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Dean rolled his eyes._ _ _ _ _ _

______Sam flushed again. “The room, smartass. Out of the room. I’ll fix some coffee.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Cas glanced from Sam, to Dean, and then back again._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Actually, Sam, I think we might be a little while longer.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Sam backed up fast, hands raised in a tell-me-no-more gesture. “I’ll shut the door,” he said, and retreated faster than Dean had ever seen him._ _ _ _ _ _

______He was still laughing when Cas came back to lie down next to him. The angel offered no objection as Dean stretched out and settled Cas snugly against his side._ _ _ _ _ _

______Much as he tried to focus on finally having Cas safe and close, Dean couldn’t quiet the voice in his head telling him he was an idiot for not getting here sooner._ _ _ _ _ _

______“I’m sorry I waited so damn long, Cas,” he murmured._ _ _ _ _ _

______Cas tilted his head back to look up at him. “Joshua once told me that everything happens in the right place, at the right time, in the right way.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Dean held on to Cas a little tighter. They’d both experienced Heaven’s idea of ‘right’ and still bore the scars of it. It seemed, to Dean, that he had turned his back on so many opportunities that he barely deserved this chance with Cas._ _ _ _ _ _

______Or, maybe, all of the shit that had happened to them both had been steering them towards what Joshua had said._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Well,” Dean said. “We’ve finally got a permanent roof over our heads. Right place. We’re all pretty much ok just now, so right time. And this?” He kissed Cas again, slowly, gently. “This definitely feels like the right way.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______ _ _ _ _

______::_ _ _ _ _ _

______Gabriel was pretty good at hiding his presence when he wanted to. He’d had a lot of practice._ _ _ _ _ _

______So he didn’t worry about anybody noticing him, or sensing his Grace, as he watched the angels arrive in an assortment of vehicles at the site of the catacombs._ _ _ _ _ _

______One of them was even riding a friggin’ moped._ _ _ _ _ _

______Dropping the dime anonymously had been tricky, and he figured eventually they’d track it back to him. But they’d never actually find him._ _ _ _ _ _

______He’d be safe, even, from either their anger or their pleas that he return home and take charge of it. Of them._ _ _ _ _ _

______Nah. He was way beyond that. It had never been his thing, and he wasn’t changing his mind now._ _ _ _ _ _

______They moved purposefully across the site. A huge chunk of the ground had caved in along with the main chamber. Gabriel figured most of the disciples had been crushed, but he could see odd curving tracks in the dirt here and there, which suggested some of them at least had dug their way out._ _ _ _ _ _

______Not that it mattered._ _ _ _ _ _

______Nathair was entombed below._ _ _ _ _ _

______He watched the angels form a circle around the collapsed crypt, the sunken ground._ _ _ _ _ _

______Their Grace combined and swelled. There were maybe one or two angels there old enough to remember the first time they’d battled the snake, but Gabriel had left pretty specific instructions about what they had to do._ _ _ _ _ _

______Inch by inch, the ground hardened and sealed. Anybody coming by here would find themselves with an inexplicable urge to be elsewhere._ _ _ _ _ _

______Humans were expanding wherever there was space, but Nathair’s presence, though the snake was hidden physically, had probably kept most of them clear._ _ _ _ _ _

______They’d turn away and not know why._ _ _ _ _ _

______The energy the angels were powering into the ruins now would have the same effect._ _ _ _ _ _

______A hundred years from now, there’d be nothing here but rock and dirt, and nobody would question why._ _ _ _ _ _

______Beneath their feet, Gabriel felt the clawing sense of claustrophobia, of panic. He pushed through the dirt with his Grace, and felt Nathair raging once more against its prison._ _ _ _ _ _

______The stone its body had turned into. The ruins of the catacombs which had buried it beneath their weight._ _ _ _ _ _

______And now the seal the other angels were placing on top of it._ _ _ _ _ _

______Eventually, Gabriel supposed, Nathair would starve. No humans, or disciples to consume. No angels to siphon Grace from._ _ _ _ _ _

______Even if the surviving followers returned, they could dig and dig and never reach their _God.__ _ _ _ _ _

_______He figured they probably wouldn’t try. In time Nathair would become a myth, some boring old tale handed down by rote, until nobody remembered it at all._ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______Gabriel suspected Nathair knew it as well. That it was now in _its_ grave. Gabriel had to admit that, while he had no faith in the concept of karma, it was one of the reasons he’d adopted the Trickster persona, this time it had proven him wrong._ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______He retreated quietly, and felt a pleasant tingle move through his Grace. He followed it back, grinning when he realised where it was coming from._ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Finally_ , he thought. _It’s about damn time_._ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______::_ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______“Let me get this straight,” Byers said. “Just so I know what I'm telling the boss when he gets down here. Which’ll be in maybe twenty five minutes.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______Ricky couldn’t look him in the eyes, and Byers resisted the urge to slap him upside the head. It was the way he’d always known when his nephew had screwed up._ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______That time he’d been smoking behind the shed and burned the damn thing down? Eyes fixed to the ground._ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______When he got kicked out of college for selling the answers to papers to the other kids, forgetting one of them was a teacher’s son?_ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______Byers thought he’d need major physio, he kept his chin tucked to his chest for so darn long._ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______Now was no different, and that was why he knew Ricky had screwed up._ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______“I did already tell you,” he muttered._ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______Byers let out a frustrated cuss and headed out onto the lot._ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______The truck, the one they’d towed outside of that nosy old lady’s house, was gone._ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______The one belonging to the imaginary fed._ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______“So,” he said. “This tall guy comes buzzing at the gate.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______Ricky nodded. “He said he’d broken down and he just needed to use the phone.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______“And even though you know you don’t let anybody in here after hours…”_ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______Ricky shrugged. “He seemed ok, Uncle Mike. Like a nice guy. Kind of had this you know sad look about him. Like he really needed my help, you know?”_ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______Mike glared at him. “So you let him in.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______“And we were in the office, and that’s when I heard the engine start up.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______“The truck.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______Ricky shook his head. “No, I told you, not that piece of shit. The muscle car. Man, it was sweet.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______Mike knew his nephew had a dream of one day owning one of those ‘classics’. So long as he was working minimum wage for their boss, it was never going to be more than that._ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______He couldn’t afford the insurance, never mind the parts to keep the damn thing mobile. And the gas it’d guzzle!_ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______“And then the big guy…”_ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______Ricky paled. “He shoved me in a chair and said he was really sorry but I had to stay there for my own good.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______“And you just did. Like a little puppy, huh?”_ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______Ricky raised his eyes, just enough to look a little fearful. “He was a goddamn giant, Uncle Mike.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______“I thought he looked nice, but sad.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______Ricky stuffed his hands in his pocket, but Mike knew the little shit was giving him the finger behind the fabric._ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______“Anyway,” he went on. “He runs out the door. I peeked out the window, and he jumps into the truck, and I see these two other guys in the muscle car, and then they all just burn out of here. I mean, even the truck. Like something out of _Fast_ , you know?”_ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______“I don’t know, Ricky. What I do know is that if we don’t get fired for this, the boss is going to take every penny for that damn truck out of our pay, and I am not lying to your mom again to cover for you being a doofus!”_ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______Ricky grumbled, but offered no other protest. Byers stared at the spot where the truck had stood._ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______Odds were they’d have ended up selling it for scrap, but all the same, he wondered why three guys driving some flashy classic would waste their time on the piece of junk they’d lifted._ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______There were better cars in here to steal, and a couple of nice bikes they’d picked up for the cops after they broke up some illegal racing on the flats._ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______And they certainly didn’t sound like your typical car thieves. Bold as brass for one thing, but they hadn’t put a hand on the boy._ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______Mike doubted Ricky was too cowed by the big guy’s size. Kid was dumb as rocks, and he made a habit of getting his ass kicked in fights a smarter guy would have walked from. More than likely he’d clocked that car and jerked one off the minute he was on his own._ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______Then picked up the phone to call about what had happened._ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______Well, it was done now anyway, he supposed._ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______He heard the honk of a car horn and looked up to see the boss pulling into the yard._ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______“Just let me do the talking, ok? And maybe we still get to be employed here tomorrow.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______Ricky didn’t look overly enthusiastic at that prospect, but unless he wanted to go back to working the drive thru, Byers hoped he kept his trap shut._ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______ _ _ _ _ _

_______THE END._ _ _ _ _ _ _


End file.
